Leaving spent grain in your house...

[Fantastical]

Well... I brewed an American Ale on Friday and left the 10lbs of spent grain sitting in some bowls. It was a simple batch 9lbs of two row and a lb of munich. I'm an apartment brewer so it's a bit of a pain to bring the grain down to the garbage room.

Anyways... I had been busy in the meantime and I left it out for a couple days. When I got home this morning the whole house stunk like cat piss! The spent grain had begun to decompose!

My apartment is 650 square feet so you can imagine the warm humid stinky air just sitting in here!

Just an FYI to anyone else leaving their grain to sit for a couple days.

 

[jsv1204]

I have noticed that it doesn't last very long, too. We use spent grain to make dog biscuits: we pretty much do it right away due to failed attempts to keep the stuff around.

 

[Nightshade]

I have noticed that it doesn't last very long, too. We use spent grain to make dog biscuits: we pretty much do it right away due to failed attempts to keep the stuff around.

If you take it straight from mash tun and cool it openly in the fridge then transfer to a vaccuum sealed bag (seal-a-meal type) it will store in a refrigerator for quite a while.

I put my grains into trash cans and set them out for a lady who feeds her chickens and hogs with it and it sometimes sits outside for a few days (average 230# at a time) and man the stink is horrible, couldn't imagine that in my house or garage:cross:

 

[wordsmith]

We use spent grain to make dog biscuits

You have to tell us how to do that.

 

[sfrice80]

Ha pretty funny you posted this. My second to last batch I did the same. Also an apartment brewer. I left it in my mash tun thinking it could cool overnight. So got up next morning and left for the day. When we got home that next night we were pleasantly greeted by an overwhelming pee smell.

We have 2 cats so we thought they went on a pissin rally. We searched for the source in the whole apartment until my fiancé discovered it was the spent grains! 2 days to fully air out. Lesson learned!

 

[Gixxer]

Man I dunno how you guys can leave that stuff in your house that long. Everybody's different though, I get it. Emptying the mash tun is the very first thing I do as soon as the cauldron starts boiling. Goes into double bags and into the trash. Tun and tools get rinsed out immediately following grain removal. However if my hop schedule or other additions during the boil keep me from cleaning the tun that moment then I do it while the trub settles after its cooled. My first trash pickup of the week is tuesday morning so the grain doesnt sit all that long after a weekend brew.

 

[Revvy]

Lactobasillus stinks to high heaven. And will take hold within a few hours, as soon as the grain drops below pasturization temps.

I once got nearly attacted by a pack of LLamas for trying to feed them few days old, stored in the freezer, spent grain, that started to thaw on the hour drive in the summer.

I almost died, I swear......

If you're not able to throw it away right away, freeze it until you can. In fact keep it in the freezer til garbage day and put it out just before the truck comes, that way you won't draw every carrion eater in the neighborhood to your can or piss off your neighbors.

 

[schittbreff]

I feed spent grains to the dogs. They love that ****.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

You have to tell us how to do that.

Spent grain, flour, peanut butter, eggs. I can't remember the specifics, but I can guarantee Google does.

 

[Revvy]

There's threads about making everything from Dog bisquits, bread and pretzels with spent grain. Plenty of recipes, do some digging. Look for "spent grain" threads and you'll find them.

 

[KayaBrew]

You have to tell us how to do that.

I won't scold you for not using the "search" box...here ya go: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/

 

[KayaBrew]

There's threads about making everything from Dog bisquits, bread and pretzels with spent grain. Plenty of recipes, do some digging. Look for "spent grain" threads and you'll find them.

How many beers into the day are you, Michael? What is a "bisquit", and what does "attacted" mean?

 

[benzy4010]

Got a lake in my back yard. Feed the fishes

 

[biochemedic]

I tried to make spent grain pizza dough with a stout grain bill, and my kids told me "pizza isn't supposed to be that color." Honestly, it didn't turn out that well, and I'm still haven't gotten up the nerve to try again... All my spent grains go out in the woods behind the house, and I'm sure are devoured by the local critters before morning comes...

 

[Stauffbier]

I save about 2 lbs worth and freeze it for cooking with and the rest gets dumped in to the flower beds and turned in with a shovel. I never smell it in the yard, but when I dumped it in my garbage can it smelled awful after 2 days. I also dump it while I'm doing the boil. I clean as much as I can at that point to shorten the brew day.

 

[Stauffbier]

I tried to make spent grain pizza dough with a stout grain bill, and my kids told me "pizza isn't supposed to be that color." Honestly, it didn't turn out that well, and I'm still haven't gotten up the nerve to try again... All my spent grains go out in the woods behind the house, and I'm sure are devoured by the local critters before morning comes...

Interesting, because I actually prefer stout/porter grains for my pizza dough and bread. Yeah, it makes the dough dark, but it tastes amazing!

 

[trimpy]

I feed spent grains to the dogs. They love that ****.

Same with my poulty. They seem to like it better a couple days later when it starts to sour :cross:

 

[kombat]

I've just been dumping mine in my garden as fertilizer. Is that bad?

 

[SFGiantsFan925]

I did the same thing. Had my grains sitting there, outside, in the sun for about 2 days. I walked by one day and almost fell over due to the stenchcoming off the grains. I was amazed at how bad they smelled. And it got worse. I dumped them into the trash, and it broke the "crust" on the grains and smacked me in the face with a horrid smell. Crazy. Seemed to happen rather quickly. I am still using extract kits, but the steeping grains were enough to smell pretty bad.

 

[trimpy]

Id definitely cover and compost to keep the smell down. My dad used to toss his in the garden in big piles. It took FOREVER to break down in one big pile. Work in grass clippings, dead leaves, etc. Mix it often to keep things aerated and it'll make some wonderful compost for your garden.

http://www.wikihow.com/Compost
http://www.ehow.com/how_5764462_compost-spent-grains.html

 

[Barnzy02]

If you're not able to throw it away right away, freeze it until you can. In fact keep it in the freezer til garbage day and put it out just before the truck comes, that way you won't draw every carrion eater in the neighborhood to your can or piss off your neighbors.

I always brew on the weekend, and my trash if picked up on fridays.

so i always have stinky grain in bags laying around, it hasn't been so bad lately now that summer has passed but...

I definitely think im going to start doing this, don't know why i haven't thought of it before to be honest.