Curiosity about spent grains

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dontman

dontman

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Yesterday when I was outside doing my boil I was idly watching my huge pile of over 100 lbs of spent grains from prior batches in the back of my yard.

I started thinking about it when I saw a male and female Cardinal feeding on the pile.

I am curious. Shouldn't my grains be depleted of all nutrition from mash conversion and rinsing?

I hear plenty about people using this grain for dog treats and bread and whatnot. But it seems as though the mashing and rinsing process should have removed 90%+ of the nutritional value from these grains. If I'm doing my job properly that is.

The birds seem to understand what I'm talking about because they rarely feed on this huge pile of free food and I have a large bird population in my back yard.

Anyway, these are the types of thing I think about while watching my wort boil.
 
dontman said:
Yesterday when I was outside doing my boil I was idly watching my huge pile of over 100 lbs of spent grains from prior batches in the back of my yard.

I started thinking about it when I saw a male and female Cardinal feeding on the pile.

I am curious. Shouldn't my grains be depleted of all nutrition from mash conversion and rinsing?

I hear plenty about people using this grain for dog treats and bread and whatnot. But it seems as though the mashing and rinsing process should have removed 90%+ of the nutritional value from these grains. If I'm doing my job properly that is.

The birds seem to understand what I'm talking about because they rarely feed on this huge pile of free food and I have a large bird population in my back yard.

Anyway, these are the types of thing I think about while watching my wort boil.
Click to expand...


Nope, almost all the feed value remains........something in the neighborhood of 90% of the protein is untouched, and that's the ingredient of primary feed value. Plus, the conversion process releases a lot of sugars and such that normally wouldn't be there........spent grain consequently is a massive growth booster.......it's phenomenal for finishing hogs and broilers.
 
Interestingly enough, I too have noticed cardinals favoring my compost heap ever since I went all-grain. Never had them in my yard too often before then, even though I had tons of finches, starlings, and robins. But now, in the spring/summer/fall months, the cardinals make frequent visits. Could be a coincidence, but I do wonder if cardinals have a particular fondness for barley.
 
This is the same thing that goes on with corn based ethanol. What's left after the conversion is usually sold as feedstock.
 
Not sure about the cardinals. I have a tall shrub that a pair of cardinals has nested in the three winters I have been at this house. I have to assume it is the same couple.

Good to know about the feed. Curious again that there is not a massive feeding frenzy going on out there this winter. Ungrateful buggers. Give them 100 pounds of delicious food and they are like 'meh, I'll wait for the good stuff.'
 
A lot of breweries send their spent grains to be used as feed for livestock. I know that Harpoon in Boston does this, they mentioned it during the tour
 
I throw mine in a compost pile, and the next day it's gone, most likely deer eat it or it could be a squatch!
 
Birds don't know you used them for beer. They're dumb. And they probably feel like you robbed them, but since they are dumb they keep coming back. This is my thesis on this topic. Exhibit A on proof birds are dumb: they fly into windows and die.
 

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