How do you repurpose used grain?

[Davevjordon]

I freeze spent grain (sometimes), and dry grain (sometimes) and I’ve made granola bars several times now

THAT’S HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

And recently dried a bunch of grain, turned it into flour using a coffee grinder and used it in frying chicken.

 

[myndflyte]

Very cool. I've made dog treats out of spent grain. The pupper loved them (of course he loves any food).

 

[triethylborane]

Compost

 

[WFox93]

So far they've made excellent trash can weights, more recently fertilizing my lawn. I have to check out these granola bars and grinding for flour. Any recipes? or a good source of them?

 

[enkamania]

Dog biscuits and compost

 

[kh54s10]

I used a very little bit making bread. The rest has gotten composted. Today, where I am staying, I have no compost so it is in a trash bag by the road waiting for pickup tomorrow.

 

[schematix]

Landfill

 

[Yooper]

I make dog treats, and I have given it to friends for their chickens (and other livestock).

 

[Grod1]

i have grown some huge mushrooms on spent brewers grain mixed with vermiculite and gypsum.

 

[PADave]

Spent grain pizza dough.

 

[day_trippr]

I dump spent grains atop our compost pile and let the wildlife have at it.
Between the deer and the turkeys not much of it actually ends up as compost...

Cheers!

 

[benco]

I’ve been feeding my neighbors chickens and he gives me eggs. A heck of a deal.

 

[Oginme]

I turn the spent grains into milk. That is, I feed them to my goats and they give me milk back! I've never seen a goat drool until I started giving them the spent grain.

 

[b-boy]

I have an area in my back yard that I dump it in. I've seen deer, rabbits, birds, and my dog out there. My dog likes to eat it after it's been there a few days.

 

[jcav]

I feed them to my chickens, and they go nuts when they see me coming with the grains. They eat the whole pile (usually over twenty pounds of grain and sometimes close to thirty) in about 2 hours! I get rewarded with awesome eggs!

John

 

[SoCal-Doug]

My spent grains go right to our horses. They love it. Grain + sugar = crack for horses.

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

I feed it to my chickens , they love it .

That fried chicken looks pretty tasty tho

 

[ancientmariner52]

Aw, heck. I've got friends with chickens, never thought of that. Thanks.

 

[MaxStout]

Compost.
Given some away to friends with urban chickens.
Doggie treats.
Garbage.
Put out in the back yard for the ducks and squirrels to eat.

 

[GHBWNY]

I pitch it into a field just beyond our hedgerow that's often frequented by deer and I'm pretty sure it makes a tasty treat for them.

 

[Davevjordon]

So far they've made excellent trash can weights, more recently fertilizing my lawn. I have to check out these granola bars and grinding for flour. Any recipes? or a good source of them?

LOL! [emoji23] “trash can weights” [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
I think we can all attest to that! YOU REALLY CRACKED ME UP WITH THAT ONE!
I brew 10 gallon batches of IPA, so I’m typically using about 29 lbs of grain. Wet weight???... IDK... about to break the garbage truck, I think.
We can trade ideas, and we probably all should. I’d like to learn how to use it for lawn fertilizer.
I’ll include a link / recipe for the granola bars in a bit.

 

[Davevjordon]

Aw, heck. I've got friends with chickens, never thought of that. Thanks.

Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of that (spent grain fed to chickens)

 

[Davevjordon]

Spent grain pizza dough.
View attachment 547637

YEAH! that’s happening one of these days!

 

[Davevjordon]

I used a very little bit making bread. The rest has gotten composted. Today, where I am staying, I have no compost so it is in a trash bag by the road waiting for pickup tomorrow.

I made bread with it once.
Disclaimer: it was my first time making homemade bread.
It wasn’t dry, but it didn’t hold together as well as I would’ve liked. I think I could nail it with some practice.

 

[ancientmariner52]

That looks good enough to eat.

So, hulls and all, huh? I'm really lazy, so I use a bread machine. Do you replace flour with spent grain? What proportion for a trial run? Do you add extra sugar to make up for 'expended' grain?

 

[xpops]

Compost pile....but to the chickens next spring when I build a coop! Would like to try that granola recipe though!

 

[WFox93]

I’d like to learn how to use it for lawn fertilizer.

All I did was spread about half of my last 5lbs batch for a 2 gallon brew across my lawn over the course of a week, Only did the back yard. and It was greener for a few days before I decided to toss the rest of the grain in the trash because it was stinking up my house. Well I didn't mind the smell but my girlfriend didn't like it too much. My brown patches were a bit smaller (NOT MUCH) and the grass over all looked just a teeny bit healthier. It's gone back to its previous state after a few days though.

I read people on here using it in their compost piles and figured, all the nitrates and what not in the spent grain would pair well with the dead falling leaves and sort of "on the fly compost" to fertilize my yard. I'm please with the result and I'll probably keep doing that after brew day. I'm sure it'll work just as well in the summer though there may be a certain smell associated with it in the higher heat.

 

[ancientmariner52]

Run it through some chickens, then use it for fertilizer. The smell goes away. Eventually.

 

[Davevjordon]

This is how I did my granola bars:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2070151/secret-edible-powerhouse-hiding-beer-waste

Recipe from that link:

* 2 cups spent grains, dried (instructions for drying are below)
* 2 cups rolled oats (quick cooking or old fashioned)
* 1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
* 1/2 to 1 cup chopped dried fruit (optional)
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1/4 cup barley malt syrup
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1/2 cup peanut butter*
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

My variance:
I use 2 1/2 cups of DRIED spent grain instead of 2
1 1/2 cups of oats
Toasted sesame seeds, maybe Tbsp worth
No dried fruit
Caro syrup instead of barley malt syrup
I “eyeball” the amount of everything but the grain and oats, and I’m not that experienced of a chef / baker, it doesn’t have to be an exact science.
Approx 1/2 cup of semi-sweet choc chips.

Almost forgot: toast sesame seeds in a dry pan on the stovetop, stirring constantly, approx 1 Tbsp
Toast sliced almonds, maybe 1/4 cup? In a dry pan on the stove. To stir, pour them into a container and back into the pan.
Toast the oats by mixing in a little olive oil, throw in the oven at low heat (200 or less) oats are very forgiving when toasting. Almonds and sesame, not so much.
And I also forgot that I added maybe 1/4-1/2 cup of salted sunflower seeds (kernels)
I HIGHLY recommend baking them, so they’ll become crispy instead of soft. I’ve done both.
Line baking pan... IDK... 11X13? with parchment paper, press mix firmly into pan (I used a small cutting board wrapped in parchment paper to press it down)
350 degrees, 20 min.
I did a search for making crunchy granola bars (general granola bars) It said to let them cool for 15 minutes. I literally had to let these cool (in the pan because I don’t have a cooling rack) for an hour and a half before I could cut them without the mix falling apart.

 

[Davevjordon]

Compost pile....but to the chickens next spring when I build a coop! Would like to try that granola recipe though!

Just posted it

 

[schematix]

Going to share my experience about grain and grass.

I used to dump my excess wort on my lawn. Most times it would lead to green patches like you were feeding the lawn crack. But a couple times it resulted in a completely dead spot.

I have since read that in some more northern climates they spray the barley with glyphosate to desiccate it before winter weather arrives. I believe the residue was the cause for the times when it completely killed the grass. Doesn't take much of the stuff to kill most plants.

 

[WFox93]

Going to share my experience about grain and grass.

I used to dump my excess wort on my lawn. Most times it would lead to green patches like you were feeding the lawn crack. But a couple times it resulted in a completely dead spot.

I have since read that in some more northern climates they spray the barley with glyphosate to desiccate it before winter weather arrives. I believe the residue was the cause for the times when it completely killed the grass. Doesn't take much of the stuff to kill most plants.

This is is why I did only the back yard and only a small amount. I used maybe 3 or 4 big handfuls for roughly 150 square feet of lawn 3 days with a day in between each dose.

 

[Davevjordon]

That looks good enough to eat.

So, hulls and all, huh? I'm really lazy, so I use a bread machine. Do you replace flour with spent grain? What proportion for a trial run? Do you add extra sugar to make up for 'expended' grain?

Not sure which one of my experiments you’re responding to, but I Posted the recipe I used for the granola bars, along with my variance. The additional sweetness came from honey, caro syrup and brown sugar. Hulls and all. I kinda like the graininess of it.

 

[ancientmariner52]

I was reading something anout that, maybe on HBT. The bottom line seems to be, maltster's won't touch it if it had glyphosate.

 

[ancientmariner52]

I was looking at the beautiful bread in post 24. I'll try the granola bars, too. Thank you.

 

[schematix]

I was reading something anout that, maybe on HBT. The bottom line seems to be, maltster's won't touch it if it had glyphosate.

Probably true, but they'd have to test for it specifically.

I recall this from last year: https://naturalnews.com/2016-04-13-...ve-toxic-chemical-levels-in-their-bodies.html

Obviously the source is a bit biased, but this was reported elsewhere too.

 

[Davevjordon]

That looks good enough to eat.

So, hulls and all, huh? I'm really lazy, so I use a bread machine. Do you replace flour with spent grain? What proportion for a trial run? Do you add extra sugar to make up for 'expended' grain?

Use the grains wet for bread, (that’s what I did, hulls and all) dry them for the granola bars or if you want to turn it into flour. I could try making bread again now that I turned a bunch into flour.
I don’t remember what recipe I found that I did for the bread, with spent grain, not turned into flour. I’d have to search all over again.
And BTW: a coffee bean grinder works WAAAAY better than a food processor for turning the grain into flour!

 

[ancientmariner52]

Thanks, Dave

 

[Davevjordon]

I was looking at the beautiful bread in post 24. I'll try the granola bars, too. Thank you.

Thank you. I just don’t remember exactly what I did with the bread. I used wet, spent grain. Hulls and all.
It was really good, just a little challenging to cut.

 

[Davevjordon]

Additional tips:
Drying spent grain: spread thin on a cookie sheet, put your oven on low (200 or less)

This will take a couple hours.
Stir about every half hour (the grains toward the outer edges of the cookie sheet will dry faster than those in the middle). Stir every half hour or so until they’re all dry.
Store in a container.
Right after brewing, you’re not about to spend a day drying grain. Store in gallon freezer bags until ready to use.
To turn dried spent grain into flour, a coffee grinder worked 1,000 times better than the Ninja blender/processor/ whatever you call it.