What do you do with your spent grains?

wallacebw said:

Can you share how you make the dog treats... my boxer would love this...

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Here is a link for you. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/

I dumped my first two batches on top of the compost pile, but I am not very good about turning it. I really need to finish that barrel composter I started and put them in there. Supposed to make compost in a couple of weeks max.

But I also promised the dogs that I'd make cookies for them on the next batch too. I tried feeding them to the finches, but they ignored them. The dogs also did not eat them off the compost pile. I must be too efficient!

I am going to try and make a compost bin of some kind. I am about to have new patio put in the yard, and once it is in I am going to set up a hop garden in containers. Everything I have read says that hops do well with additions of compost, so I figure I can reuse the grains to help the hops that will help make the beer the grains made better.

It's like some happy beered up circle of life!

I wanted to do that with mine last year - you know build a compost pile, the thought being that I could make some good compost for growing hops. But I figured out I think its just really far too hot to grow hops in Alabama. Last year I would get up at dawn, and water my hops before I left for work, then water them again when I get home and by the dog days most all of them were dried and dead even though they really took off well in the spring. Just too hot for them to do well here I think.

Anyway, good luck to you with your container hop garden -- I may try the same thing next year. Right now, I'm just trying the one plant that seemed to survive in a different location.

Getting off the subject I know... sorry. Anyway, what you might consider with the spent grains is raking them into the lawn. Any place I have dumped the grains out and raked them in, the grass has grown in thicker and with better roots. I filled in a huge bare spot underneath where we had a pool a couple years ago and the grass on the grain conditioned soil looks like a golf course.

Sometimes I throw them at the neighborhood children. They laugh and play.

Ok... maybe I just throw them away. I'll try that whole making bread thing too now.

Wow, mutilated, I didn't even think about using them as top dressing for the lawn. I might have to try that myself - I have a spot in the lawn where a turkey frying incident occurred, and it could use some help.

I just read an article in Brew your own magazine about doing a container hop garden, and it was written by a guy that lives just outside of Austin, so I figure if he can grow them here, I could give it a stab and see what happens.

hmm, I wonder if I let them sour in a bucket, I could take them to the lake and chum with it.

I sell mine to Anheuser-Busch, they use them to make beer.

JesseRC said:

hmm, I wonder if I let them sour in a bucket, I could take them to the lake and chum with it.

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I bet that would work too. I never tried it with spent grains, but I've done the same thing with wheat and seed corn - fish seem to love it even though the smell is horrid.

I bet you could let them sour and go piggie hunting also.

gplutt said:

Seattle just started putting out food waste pick up bins. I made some dog treats out of the last batch and the rest now goes into the bin.

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I have read this before about the doggy treats. What is the recipe or what are you doing?

Currently into the garbage but after I build a compost tumbler....in there

humann_brewing said:

I have read this before about the doggy treats. What is the recipe or what are you doing?

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someone posted a link to the doggy treat topic a couple pages back

basically you mix em up with peanut butter or meat renderings and an egg to bind it all together and bake cookies

my German sheppard loves them, but I tried feeding them to my sister's cocker spaniel and that stupid dog wouldn't have anything to do with them

pretty much the way I make them nowdays is just turn my daughter loose in the kitchen and let her play dog bakery - she has fun messing and making, the dog loves to eat them

just watch out because they have a lot of fiber and they'll make the dog need to go - lol

Mutilated1 said:

just watch out because they have a lot of fiber and they'll make the dog need to go - lol

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Thanks, I have definitely found out that the dog needs to go afterwards. For the first few all grains I did, I put the grain on the side of the house in the dirt. Well the dog found it of course and well you know the rest. The SMWBO has me put it in the trash now but maybe I will give this a try.

ajwillys said:

I sell mine to Anheuser-Busch, they use them to make beer.

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Now that's funny!

ajwillys said:

I sell mine to Anheuser-Busch, they use them to make beer.

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I do that with my left over rice actually.

Really? I do that with my left over hop matter. I wash it first to make sure there is no beer flavor on it.

Mine goes out by the woods for the deer, squirrels, etc.

I would like to build a compost area.

I feed mine to the horses.

We made doggie treats. Spent grains, flour, 2 eggs and 1 cup of peanut butter. Smeared across bottom of greased cookie sheet. Cooked at 350 for 30 mins and then turned oven down to 250 and baked for 2 more hours to dry out. The doggies loved them. didn't notice more poo than usual, but i didn't really pay very close attention. Threw some out in the front yard for the birdies, too.

Toss them to the birds... haven't paid attention to see if they actually eat them.

Surye said:

What about trub? How's that in a compost pile? I had a second generation cake I threw in there, but not sure if it was the best idea

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Have not tried it myself, but you can use trub when you make wort bread.
Don't know if that is something typical Swedish (it's tradition to eat it around christmas time, so I guess it comes from when everybody brewed beer for the holiday festivities). Love that kind of bread, nowadays they often substitute the trub with a porter or similar.

For a dodgy translation of a recipe.
Översatt version av http://www.ica.se/FrontServlet?s=mat_recept&state=recept&receptid=1039

I compost most of the grains SWMBO does take some for spent grain bread. Trub either goes down the drain or when I clean the fermentor or pot outside it just soaks into the lawn .. I have noticed when I do that the grass is much greener and grows faster in that spot not sure if its the extra water or the trub..

Feed the deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, birds, I guess what ever shows up. 20-25 lbs. seems to disappear pretty quickly.

I just dump mine on top of my garden. The earthworms make pretty quick work of them.


TL

I use mine to fill in holes in my yard. I'm only extract brewing so bit by bit...

I put them in the compost bin. My buddy used to pour them in his yard and let his dog eat as much as he wanted.

Heyyyo said:

I've heard of people making dog treats out of them. Also have seen pictures of people putting them out for wildlife, deer and such.

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Don't put them out for the deer, deer are not supposed to eat grains, it will make them sick. Also, any central feed location is a good way to spread disease. Here is an article from our local paper

MailTribune.com: Please don't feed the deer

"Deer digestive tracts and the bacteria within them cannot handle heavy carbohydrate diets, Niemela says. So the ingestion of corn causes intense diarrhea and secondary infections that lead to internal hemorrhaging, kidney failure, dehydration and death."

madavis25 said:

I put them in the compost bin. My buddy used to pour them in his yard and let his dog eat as much as he wanted.



Don't put them out for the deer, deer are not supposed to eat grains, it will make them sick. Also, any central feed location is a good way to spread disease. Here is an article from our local paper

MailTribune.com: Please don't feed the deer

"Deer digestive tracts and the bacteria within them cannot handle heavy carbohydrate diets, Niemela says. So the ingestion of corn causes intense diarrhea and secondary infections that lead to internal hemorrhaging, kidney failure, dehydration and death."

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UMMM.. I've been feeding deer shelled corn and spent grains for years and non of them have dropped over dead, and no piles of diarrhea either. The deer in Nebraska eat corn all the time. The midwest sort of grows a lot of it. We're talking about millions of acres of corn. If that were the case there wouldn't be any deer around??? In fact there are so many they have special seasons just to thin them out. So... IMO that article seems a little far fetched, unless it pertains only to the black tail deer. We have Whitetail and Mule Deer around here. :rockin:

I put them in the garden for much, I'll till them in. Besides, in Michigan we are not allowed to feed deer, so I have certainly not been feeding the deer. I posted the garden, all intruders trying to eat on my compost will be shot (and eaten).

I compost all of mine but tomorrow I am brewing and am going to save 3 cups of grain to make the dog treats.

My buddy has a 450 pound pig, destroyed in seconds!!!!

madavis25 said:

I put them in the compost bin. My buddy used to pour them in his yard and let his dog eat as much as he wanted.



Don't put them out for the deer, deer are not supposed to eat grains, it will make them sick. Also, any central feed location is a good way to spread disease. Here is an article from our local paper

MailTribune.com: Please don't feed the deer

"Deer digestive tracts and the bacteria within them cannot handle heavy carbohydrate diets, Niemela says. So the ingestion of corn causes intense diarrhea and secondary infections that lead to internal hemorrhaging, kidney failure, dehydration and death."

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Actually, spent grains are low in carbs because they are spent grains. As in, most of the carbs have been removed.

Spent grains = High protien, high fibre, low carb deer feed.

madavis25 said:

Don't put them out for the deer, deer are not supposed to eat grains, it will make them sick. Also, any central feed location is a good way to spread disease. Here is an article from our local paper

MailTribune.com: Please don't feed the deer

"Deer digestive tracts and the bacteria within them cannot handle heavy carbohydrate diets, Niemela says. So the ingestion of corn causes intense diarrhea and secondary infections that lead to internal hemorrhaging, kidney failure, dehydration and death."

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What? I guess that's why we feed them "feed" corn, which is high in protein and not so much in fiber. It's feed corn because nobody would want to eat it if it showed up at the Luby's.

But, still, what? No grain? I've been, in some part, managing deer populations for my whole life, and we've used feeders with corn, and I've never seen some mass deer death due to intense diarrhea and secondary infections that lead to internal hemorrhaging, kidney failure, dehydration." Rather, we've have lots and lots of healthy deer. The only reliable cause of death I've seen that are related to feeders are bullets from hunters who hang around those feeders during deer season.

This sounds like another case of someone reading a bunch of stuff and drawing conclusions based on extrapolation while having zero experience to actually base any conclusion. In other words, all hat and no cowboy.


TL

+1 to compost pile. And believe it or not, I have had some barley later sprout from the pile last year. I kid you not!

A friend of mine built a trebuchette. I'm thinking of borrowing it and seeing how far grains can launch.

If you can't beat the rednecks, join em.

I've got this hole leading to a tunnel system underneath my backyard that the local squirrels have created. I started dumping my IC cooling water down that hole, and now I think I'm gonna start dumping the spent grains down there as well. The squirrels will love it, and I'll fill the hole... what a country!

The local deer absolutely love mine!

I just dropped off 38 lbs of spent grains at a friend's house. He's got 7 chickens, so I doubt it'll take them that long to go through it.

+1 on composting. I just turned mine last weekend after we got a lot of rain. Man, did it stink! :cross: I should give some of these cookie, bread and veggie burger recipes a try.

+1 for composting

Just keep your dogs out of the hops. Hops are toxic to dogs. Even the left over trub at the bottom of the brew kettle can kill.