Draining and disposing of spent grains

[FloppyKnockers]

This is only a recent problem (and solution) of mine since for the past several years all I did was dump my spent grains into my yard debris bin for weekly removal. I have moved to a different place where yard debris goes in the trash. Trash is not collected by automation, but by a crew of guys that grab bags and bins and hoist them in the back of the collection vehicle.

This may not seem huge, but I don't have goats, chickens, nor the desire to bake treats for the dogs. Now I have to bag my spent grains and put them out for pick-up.

After I pull the bag, I wring it and squeeze it like it owes me money then put the bag in a bucket. It never fails that more liquid will collect at the bottom of the bucket. Bagging the grains can be messy. If there's a hole in the trash bag, that'll cause a sticky mess on the floor and on the street.

The solution: I thought of making a false bottom for my bucket by sacrificing a lid, drill some holes, and fashion some feet out of lid parts or pipe. Then I found this little $9 gem:

It's a grit guard made for car wash buckets, but has found a new life in my brew room. It suspends the bag above the bottom of the bucket. At the end of the brew day, the spent grains are significantly drier and lighter and easier to bag and dispose of.

Just wanted to share in case someone else is in the same boat looking for a similar solution.

TLDR; Grit guard good. Sticky floor bad.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I have moved to a different place where yard debris goes in the trash.

That is a bummer. While throwing away food waste is better than throwing away plastics, in the dry and anaerobic conditions of a typical landfill, food breaks down very slowly and produces methane in the process. Composting spent grains (even if that means just spreading the spent grains on the ground), is much better on the environment.

 

[wepeeler]

That is a bummer. While throwing away food waste is better than throwing away plastics, in the dry and anaerobic conditions of a typical landfill, food breaks down very slowly and produces methane in the process. Composting spent grains (even if that means just spreading the spent grains on the ground), is much better on the environment.

I toss mine in the woods that border our home, and it seems like the critters love it. Doesn't last more than a season...

 

[Golddiggie]

There's a woman a short distance from me with chickens. She gets the spent grain I produce every brew day. I get fresh eggs in trade. After I move, I plan to locate someone close that also has chickens (or other livestock) that will be able to use the spent grain to feed said animals. The chickens go ballistic over the spent grain AND produce more eggs as a result. So win-win-win.

 

[Mr. Vern]

I joined the facebook poultry group in my state, They tend to give me fresh eggs when I drop off spent grain. Luckily there is a house within a quarter mile that has chickens (even in metro Detroit)

The problem, spent grain has a very short storage life when wet. You have to get that grain delivered or picked up quickly.

you can only make so much spent grain flour and dog treats! Summer temperatures and rotting grain in the bin can lead to nasties, last summer I noticed a lot of birds by my trash cans... turns out they were eating maggots, at nightfall an army of maggots marched on my driveway. There were flies for weeks!

 

[Golddiggie]

I think the person who gets my spent grain is maybe a quarter mile away from me. I simply put the bucket into the back of my truck, drive it over, and either give it to them (if home) or leave it by their front door. I do put a lid on the bucket to keep things out. I've made sure they know to not let it hang around for long in the warmer months.

I also gave her the dog treat recipe, since she has dogs too. Less work for me. I just have to prompt her to get my bucket back in time for the next batch. I'm probably going to go to Homeless Despot this weekend and get a couple more buckets. Since the coming batch grain bill is more than will fit into one 5 gallon bucket.

 

[hotbeer]

Compost pile out back gets all my spent grain, trub, yeast and hop sludge from boil kettle.

Seems like it composts leaves and other coarse stuff even faster since I started brewing and dumping in it.

Flower beds the wife likes to plant do much better when I add the finished compost to them.

 

[Saunassa]

The hop/trub sludge goes in ditch that drains to river while my spent grains end up in compost pile or frozen for a woman that bakes. Upside is I get a loaf of good bread and no longer have to turn compost pile so often as the deer do it for me.

 

[MicroMickey]

My compost pile gobbles up just about everything. The hops and such go into the garbage can as there are numerous dogs in the neighborhood and I really don't want to poison them. Yes, there are leash laws but you know how much dogs pay attention to the rules!

 

[rock_n_herm]

I use BIAB process with a paint strainer bag for my small 2.5 gallon batches. After mashing, I set the grain bag in a colander over another pot to drain, then squeeze to get as much sweet wort as possible. After collecting the “drainage” I carry the pot, colander and bag to the backyard for composting. Sometimes I spread the grains directly on the ground. Other times I dump them in the compost barrel.
I bake my own bread, and always use some spent beer grain flour. This past Monday I brewed a stout, my first. Since my spent grain supply was low, I scooped out enough spent grain to fill a couple baking trays, before dumping the rest in my compost. I wish there was someone nearby who had chickens, so I could do a grains for eggs swap.

 

[T Murph]

Another disposal option if you live in a country setting is simply spread your spent grains out on the ground in wooded areas. Birds, deer, raccoons, armadillos, squirrels and many other wild life will gladly gobble them up. Some will attack the grains immediately and once they dry others will clean up the rest. My preference remains adding them into the compost bin but I still give some to my sisters chickens. I think the eggs taste better from chickens who eat sweet spent grains.

 

[Mr. Vern]

Flower beds the wife likes to plant do much better when I add the finished compost to them.

I also take my yeast cake and use that to water/feed the plants... they love it! "These findings support the notion that brewers' yeast is a cost-effective biofertilizer that improves not only plant nutrition but also plant vigor during the early growth phase. "

Nitrogen and Phosphorous substantially increased with yeast as a fertilizer. The quoted study used Sacc. Cerevisiae

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Another disposal option if you live in a country setting is simply spread your spent grains out on the ground in wooded areas. Birds, deer, raccoons, armadillos, squirrels and many other wild life will gladly gobble them up. Some will attack the grains immediately and once they dry others will clean up the rest. My preference remains adding them into the compost bin but I still give some to my sisters chickens. I think the eggs taste better from chickens who eat sweet spent grains.

Maybe share some of the finished beer with those chickens too. Not sure it would improve their eggs but it might make them happier to lay more!

 

[MicroMickey]

I had a bald spot in the yard under a big shade tree. I started dumping the yeast cake there. The grass has grown back.

 

[RM-MN]

I had a bald spot in the yard under a big shade tree. I started dumping the yeast cake there. The grass has grown back.

I have a balding spot on top of my head. You're giving me ideas.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

When we lived at our old houes, I had been redoing a flower bed at the front of the house. I was brewing and had told my wife that I was going to dump the spent grain in the flower bed and she told me not to do it. Well she had somewhere to go that morning, and I dumped them in and used the small tiller to mix it in real well with the soil so that she wouldn't notice. Over the next few weeks I finished up the flower bed, and obver the next couple of month, my wife commented on how well the bed was doing at which point I told her what I had done. She never mentioned it again when I added the spent grain to flower beds.

 

[T Murph]

I have a balding spot on top of my head. You're giving me ideas.

Please post all positive results, me and a few million others are eager to find out how it works out.

 

[MaxStout]

Post an ad in the "Free" section of Craigslist. You'll get someone willing to stop by and pick them up for their birds.

 

[JAReeves]

I bought a grain mill for flour, so I will be experimenting with drying and then grinding the grain into flour for bread. Normally I dry and freeze a couple of sheet trays worth to have on hand for adding to homemade bread, the flour is going to step it up a notch. All overflow grains, hops, fruit and yeast go into the mulch bin and then into the yard.

 

[friarsmith]

My sources for chicken/livestock related disposal dried up after several years (and a move), and I have nowhere to dispose of them now, so i put my grains in a bus tub in the freezer until the morning of the next trash collection day. It stays frozen in a block long enough to not be a hassle for the trash collectors.

 

[odie]

I supposed you could even just spread it out all over your yard. It will break down and decompose in the grass along with the normal grass clippings left over from mowing.

 

[FromZwolle]

I supposed you could even just spread it out all over your yard. It will break down and decompose in the grass along with the normal grass clippings left over from mowing.

this is what i do. it's the only 'lawn treatment' i ever do and my yard is green for longer in those hot summer months than any of my neighbors'.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Mine gets dumped on the edge of my property. I tried filling in some low spots around the yard, but my wife didn't approve of that. Even the spot I dump everything now doesn't meet her approval but it's far enough away, out of sight enough.

 

[hankisanerd]

In the past I dumped it into a ground compost container until, one day I moved it and several rats took off. Not doing that again.

 

[Bria]

Here's my favorite thing to do with spent grain: Spent Grain Beer Bread Recipe - Food.com
Delicious every time! I use what I can, freeze some, and have a couple other folks in town I call to give away the extra.

 

[Old Medic]

There's a woman a short distance from me with chickens. She gets the spent grain I produce every brew day. I get fresh eggs in trade. After I move, I plan to locate someone close that also has chickens (or other livestock) that will be able to use the spent grain to feed said animals. The chickens go ballistic over the spent grain AND produce more eggs as a result. So win-win-win.

Our chickens learned that when I started brewing, a treat was coming, and they would go nuts. My sister now gets our stuff for here birds and a hog.

 

[NSMikeD]

Since beer tends to add to our waistlines, the spent grains can be used in making a low carb high protein granola. I also make yogurt (easy in a one pot) and combined with cholesterol lowering oats, one can have a DIY, healthy and budget lowering breakfast.

While I like the idea of making bread and flour, I know I don't have the will power to resist eating the whole dang loaf in one day. The granola is a better choice for me and require a fraction of the time to make.

 

[Airborneguy]

I can see straight past the neighbor across the street into the backyard of the house behind his. They have chickens. I’ve been considering knocking in their door.

 

[brewbama]

I dump spent grains at the wood line so when the deer come eat them my wife can see the deer. I used to have a chicken lady but she doesn’t do chickens anymore.

 

[camonick]

I’ve been considering knocking in their door.

Sorry, couldn’t resist

 

[Airborneguy]

That’s why I’ve been putting it off.

 

[wstumper]

you can only make so much spent grain flour and dog treats! Summer temperatures and rotting grain in the bin can lead to nasties, last summer I noticed a lot of birds by my trash cans... turns out they were eating maggots, at nightfall an army of maggots marched on my driveway. There were flies for weeks!

Possibly soldier fly larvae, not maggots? I get these in my compost. Attracted to wet grain and decaying vegetable material. Chickens love soldier fly larvae more than spent grains! The flies do not bite. They remind me of trilobites...

 

[leedspointbrew]

Since beer tends to add to our waistlines, the spent grains can be used in making a low carb high protein granola. I also make yogurt (easy in a one pot) and combined with cholesterol lowering oats, one can have a DIY, healthy and budget lowering breakfast.

While I like the idea of making bread and flour, I know I don't have the will power to resist eating the whole dang loaf in one day. The granola is a better choice for me and require a fraction of the time to make.

What's your method? This is interesting. I've been trying to find a use for my spent grains. Granola never occurred to me.

 

[NSMikeD]

What's your method? This is interesting. I've been trying to find a use for my spent grains. Granola never occurred to me.

I was making my own standard granola here and there until I came across a recipe from BYO which incorporated spent grain.
From BYO:

Spent Grain Granola​

This was the very first recipe I made using spent grain. I make this one frequently and because this recipe is quite flexible, I sometimes vary the ingredients based on what I have on hand in my pantry. The variety of nuts and dried fruit can change from batch-to-batch. You can also add in a ½ cup of whatever seeds (pumpkin or sunflower work well) you have on hand but this is totally optional. I like my granola loose as opposed to packed-tightly into bars or clusters but you could certainly apply some pressure to the granola mix while it’s on the sheet tray before baking to promote the formation of clusters. The spent grain used for this recipe doesn’t even need to be milled, you can use it whole.

Ingredients
1 1⁄2 cups spent grain, dried and un-milled (I recommend using spent grain from a lighter beer that doesn’t contain roasted malt)
1 1⁄2 cups rolled oats
1 cup roughly chopped unroasted nuts (I use almonds, pecans, and walnuts)
1 cup coconut flakes, preferably unsweetened
1⁄2 cup roughly chopped dried fruit (I use dried cranberries)
1⁄2 cup olive oil
2⁄3 cup maple syrup
1⁄3 cup brown sugar
1⁄2 tsp. Kosher salt
1⁄2 tsp. cinnamon
1⁄4 tsp. ground cloves
1⁄4 tsp. garam masala (optional)
Pinch of ground nutmeg

Step by step
Preheat oven to 300 °F (150 °C). In a large bowl, using a large spoon, spatula, or your hands, thoroughly combine all of the above ingredients.

Spread the mixture evenly on a half-sheet tray or similar sized sheet. I recommend using something with a lip or edge.

Bake for roughly 50 minutes until the nuts and coconut turn golden-brown in color. Be sure to stir the mixture every 5–10 minutes. Let cool and package in an airtight container or edge.

Bake for roughly 50 minutes until the nuts and coconut turn golden-brown in color. Be sure to stir the mixture every 5–10 minutes. Let cool and package in an airtight container or plastic food-storage bag.



here is link with other uses and recipes

https://byo.com/article/cooking-with-spent-grains/

 

[tennesseean_87]

I use one fo those foldable steamer basket things opened up to let the last bit drain from my bag, then dump that in before the boil ends.