Silly newbie questions

[jimhenning]

K guys, 2 silly questions then I'll let you get back to drinking.

1. I have all these left over grains after brewing. I normally give them to the wife so she can make beer bread, its good stuff, however I was wondering the viability of using it AGAIN to make beer...is it worth it or am I having pipe dreams?

2. This may be really silly but, for naming homebrews/your brewery, can someone sue you for taking their name? I didn't want to get sued for calling something "Batman beer" or something like that.

 

[nukebrewer]

If you did no-sparge and the beer was big enough, you might have a shot at getting a decent beer out of the spend grains. Otherwise, I don't think it would be worth it. Just so you know, if you did do that, it would called parti-gyle brewing. I'm not sure on the origin of the name, but that's what it is.

IANAL, but I think they technically could sue you, but as long you're not a commercial brewery they probably won't, so it's your call.

 

[jimhenning]

i usually steep the grains for 20 mins in 1.5-2 gallons of water, i was considering just trying it for a lark...but i do freeze them when they are done, so the wife can do the bread with them, not sure if that affects much

 

[nukebrewer]

Yeah, if you rinse them after your first runnings, they're more than likely no good for another beer, whether you freeze them or not.

 

[LandoLincoln]

1) It's called parti-gyle brewing and it's a really, really old practice. It's not a surprise that brewers wanted to get as much beer as possible out of their grains.

2) No, they can't sue you if you're not a commercial brewer.

 

[ktblunden]

i usually steep the grains for 20 mins in 1.5-2 gallons of water, i was considering just trying it for a lark...but i do freeze them when they are done, so the wife can do the bread with them, not sure if that affects much

I think you would end up with a severely diminished color and flavor trying to reuse them for a second steep. I would just go ahead and continue to use them for baking since the small quantities of specialty grains most extract recipes call for represents a very small fraction of the overall price.

And yeah, if you tried to sell anything using someone else's trademarked name you would be in trouble, but for homebrew purposes there's nothing anyone could come after you for.