Spent Grain - Bread

[Mose]

Thanks, I'll give that a try on the next round and have some on hand for cooking on shorter notice.

 

[ascan]

My question is has anyone tried to freeze the dough or the bread to use for later? I would like to keep some on hand ready to go but would like to avoid the hassle of full on cooking bread every few days or so.

Its perfectly fine to freeze the bread. Wrap tightly in plastic, and to reheat bake at like 300 for 10 minutes (or until warmed through). I would not freeze dough, as it makes everything way more complicated since there is usually a ton of spent grain left for baking. I bake all of the bread I plan to make ahead of time, and freeze what I don't plan on consuming immediately.

Pardon my ignorance. Does the spent grain need to be dried before making the bead?

No. If you don't dry it out you don't need as much water as the initial recipe calls for.

On another note, what would be a good spread to serve with this? Think of how you go into a mexican restaurant and get chips and salsa; italian place bread and olive oil, steakhouse rolls and butter. For my brewpub, I would love to have baskets of this with ???? Honey Mustard Mayo? Honey Butter? Bacon Honey Butter? Horseradish Mayo?

It would have to be something that is relatively inexpensive and awesome with the bread and complement the line of fine, hand-crafted beers that will be on tap....

Please suggest!

It probably depends on your pub's theme. Garlic infused olive oil, horseradish dip, honey mustard dip, etc. Personally, I prefer hummus. There are any number of ways to differentiate it (spicy hummus, garlic hummus, guacamole/southwestern hummus, etc.

 

[ChshreCat]

SWMBO baked up a couple loaves of this after my batch last week and liked it so much she said I need to brew more often so she can make it regularly. Win-Win!

 

[bmckee56]

Preheat oven to 425*F. Bake loaf on center rack for 20 minutes. Using a spray bottle with clean water, mist the entire loaf (6-8 squirts) every 5 minutes for the first 20 minutes. Then reduce oven temp to 375* and bake another 25 mins, or until loaf sounds hollow when thumped with a knuckle. Cool, cut, and munch.

Yum! This thread got me going, so thanks for the inspiration.

I use the spray bottle technique as well, it gives you a nice crusty bread. It is also great to use with rolls. Nothing like home baked bread and rolls, especially when they contain your spent grain from a recent brew day.

Salute!

 

[chip82]

So I am new to brewing and I still do extract brewing...could i just the specialty grains from steeping to make something like this? It sure does look delicious

 

[Hegh]

So I am new to brewing and I still do extract brewing...could i just the specialty grains from steeping to make something like this? It sure does look delicious

You're missing a verb, but yes, you can use the specialty grains from steeping. The result will be sweeter, though, because you don't get as much sugar out by steeping than by mashing.

 

[Julohan]

Yeah, increasing the amount of flour is the way to go. My standard when using spent grains I haven't baked with before (after trying it standard, i adjust the flour and add adjuncts to compliment) is 3 cups whole wheat and 1 cup white. Perhaps a bit more white/water as dough consistency dictates. The rest I keep to the original recipe.

I almost never buy bread anymore. The spent grain keeps for a while in the fridge, and a new batch or two every week is enough.

How long will you keep the spent grain in the fridge for? I assume you just put it in a covered container.

 

[Hegh]

How long will you keep the spent grain in the fridge for? I assume you just put it in a covered container.

Not what you asked, but it will keep virtually forever in the freezer. Just make sure you use it within a day of pulling it out; it goes south quickly.

 

[jbrookeiv]

Here's the recipe I use, easy and AWESOME. Pictures here: http://beerreviewdude.com/beer-recipes/spent-grain-beer-bread-recipe/

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons room temperature water
1/2 cup spent grain, preferably low on the roasted malts
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons lager
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary

Instructions

Combine and whisk flour, yeast, salt, Parmesan, and rosemary in large bowl. Add water, grain, lager, and vinegar. Using a silicone spatula, fold together mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until a ball forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Line a 10-inch skillet with a sheet of parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape the dough into a ball by pulling the edges into the middle. Transfer the dough, seam-side down, to your parchment-lined skillet and spray the surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until your dough has doubled in size, around 2 hours.

About 30 minutes before your dough is done rising, adjust oven rack to the lowest position, place your Dutch oven (with the lid on) on the rack, and heat the oven to 500 degrees. Dust the top of your dough lightly with flour and, using a sharp knife, make a 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along the top of the dough.

Carefully remove your dutch oven from the oven and remove the lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment and lower into the Dutch oven. Cover the Dutch oven and place in oven. Lower oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and the center of the loaf registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove the loaf from the pot; transfer the loaf to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, which would take about 2 hours.

 

[KCBrewer]

.

 

[snccoulter]

Made this today it turned out really well except the crust was a bit thick. I will have to do it again tough...

 

[hereforbeer]

Made this just now,and it is badass.Topped it off with almond butter and jelly.Thank you HBT.

 

[HItransplant]

3 cups spent grain
5 cups bread flour (approximate)
1 Tbsp salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup homemade Irish Stout
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 pkg dry baking yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm (112*F) water
Pinch of cornmeal

Combine grain, 2 cups of bread flour, salt, and brown sugar in large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.

Dissolve 1/2 tsp white sugar in 112*F water in a small bowl. Sprinkle dry yeast on water surface. Cover bowl w. foil and hold between 110* and 115* for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, add beer and oil to grain/flour mixture and stir together. Slowly add 2 more cups of bread flour and combine (I just used my hands, coated w. flour to avoid sticking).

After 10 mins soaking, gently stir yeast mixture, replace cover and rest for 5 mins or until yeast cream is nice and thick.

Add yeast mixture to dough and combine by hand. Slowly add remaining bread flour until dough is stiff and only a bit sticky.

Turn out dough onto floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. Place dough in large bowl coated w. nonstick spray, cover w. damp towel, and leave for 2-3 hours (or until roughly double in size) in a warm spot to rise.

After initial rise, punch down dough and turn out onto floured surface. Shape into a round loaf, pulling the top of the loaf tight. Grease (or spray) a large cookie sheet and sprinkle with a bit of cornmeal to prevent sticking. Place loaf on prepared sheet, cover w. damp towel, and allow to rise for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until roughly doubled.

Preheat oven to 425*F. Bake loaf on center rack for 20 minutes. Using a spray bottle with clean water, mist the entire loaf (6-8 squirts) every 5 minutes for the first 20 minutes. Then reduce oven temp to 375* and bake another 25 mins, or until loaf sounds hollow when thumped with a knuckle. Cool, cut, and munch.

Yum! This thread got me going, so thanks for the inspiration.

and thanks to you sfbayjay. I made your recipe yesterday. First loaf of bread, and it was nothing but success.

This recipe is definitely a saver, and it will be a redo.

I have to say making bread is a lot like brewing beer... except with less worry about sanitation .

 

[Golddiggie]

Planning on trying the recipe (from sfbayjay) after this weekend's brew day... Is there anything I should do with the spent grain I save? Such as running through a food processor to get it into a finer state? Or soak it overnight in water to help it blend in, or make it even better?

I plan to reserve enough grains from the coming brew day to make at least a couple of batches, so I might try the above methods of grain altering (one per batch)... But if someone has already tried any of them, please post if it was good, bad, ugly, or you couldn't keep people away from the bread...

 

[NyQuil_Driver]

My lady just whipped up a couple loafs of spent grain bread from my steeping grains:
12oz Caramel 80L
4oz Black Patent
4oz Chocolate

Looks beautiful, but could use a bit more butter for flavor. But then, I love me some butter.

I wrote the whole thing up here: Baking Project: Spent Beer Grain Bread

 

[Golddiggie]

My lady just whipped up a couple loafs of spent grain bread from my steeping grains:
12oz Caramel 80L
4oz Black Patent
4oz Chocolate

Looks beautiful, but could use a bit more butter for flavor. But then, I love me some butter.

I wrote the whole thing up here: Baking Project: Spent Beer Grain Bread

I reserved about 6-8 cups of spent grain from Sunday's brewing... It was from a more pale ale recipe, so 2 Row, MO and some 45L Caramel Malt... Can you ask your baker if I should add more buttah to the recipe? I'm also thinking about sending the grains for a spin in my food processor before using them (I also have a stand mixer with a dough hook and such) to help make a finer texture in the bread (less big chunks o grain)...

 

[NyQuil_Driver]

My lovely baker says that for this recipe, she'd probably up the butter to about 2-3 tbsp, which will make the bread a bit softer. Another teaspoon of salt will help the flavor, and shouldn't affect the yeast too badly.

As for the processor, she doesn't see why not. Give it a whirl

Baking: It's science for hungry people.

 

[Golddiggie]

My lovely baker says that for this recipe, she'd probably up the butter to about 2-3 tbsp, which will make the bread a bit softer. Another teaspoon of salt will help the flavor, and shouldn't affect the yeast too badly.

As for the processor, she doesn't see why not. Give it a whirl

Baking: It's science for hungry people.

Good to know... What temp did the mad-baker cook your loaf at? I have a stone that I can bake on, to help things out... Been a dog's life span since I've used it, but I have it.

I think we need some pictures of what she's made for you...

Would she recommend 1 tsp or 1-1/2 tsp of salt (since your other site posting mentioned she used 1/2 tsp in the batch)...

Also, what kind of flour did she use? I have some AP, as well as a fresh bag of 'better for bread' flour...

 

[NyQuil_Driver]

You are very correct about the need for pictures. I was dreadfully aware of the lack of photographs when I was whipping up the blog post. I'll take some tonight.

She ran it at 375*F for 30-40 minutes, but I'm pretty sure she put it back in for a few more minutes due to the needle test.

 

[Golddiggie]

You are very correct about the need for pictures. I was dreadfully aware of the lack of photographs when I was whipping up the blog post. I'll take some tonight.

She ran it at 375*F for 30-40 minutes, but I'm pretty sure she put it back in for a few more minutes due to the needle test.

Sheet pans or on a stone??

 

[NyQuil_Driver]

Neither. She used a pair of loaf pans, so we can use it for sammiches.

 

[Golddiggie]

Neither. She used a pair of loaf pans, so we can use it for sammiches.

No wonder she had to put them back in...

I'll be using my baking stoooone for this... I might go for a traditional round loaf for one (full circle round) and maybe something like a French loaf for the other (although it could be difficult to put "we surrender" on it) Just need to get some cornmeal to dust the stone with to make working with it easier (to slide the bread on and off)... First time I'll be using my pizza peal in ages too...

Brewing, another gateway activity...

 

[Mongrel]

Here's the recipe I use, easy and AWESOME. Pictures here: http://beerreviewdude.com/beer-recipes/spent-grain-beer-bread-recipe/

This recipe comes out great, and I've been gradually simplifying it.

3 cups all-purpose flour (If you can get Robin Hood flour use it)
1/4 teaspoon rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1/2 cup spent grain, preferably low on the roasted malts (I don't worry about the roasted, match the grains with the beer used)
12 oz of ale (pale ale, amber, esb, stout all work)
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Cook the same way with the dutch oven.

 

[Golddiggie]

Just mixed up NyQuil_Driver's recipe, with a couple of modifications...

1. I put the spent (still wet) grains through my food processor to get them into a finer crush state.
2. I used about 3 tbsp of soft butter (added with the grain before adding the yeast slurry).
3. I put the bread flour through a fine metal strainer before using it.

Ended up using the 5 cups of 'sifted' flour. Most of it went into the mixer (dough hook) but the last little bit went onto the board where I did some kneading.

I have it on the board, beneath an inverted (and oiled with EVOO) stainless bowl (large enough). Plan to check on it after an hour to see where it's at. Thinking of punching it down, kneading it some, then putting it into the bowl (covering with a towel) for another hour (or so) until it doubles again. Then I'll split it into loaves, let rise, and bake on my pizza stone.

Thinking about melting some butter to pour on top of one of the loves (after running a knife along the top length)... Still have a couple of hours to decide on that part.

 

[Randar]

Man, I had a nice sammich at lunch today with my spent grain bread. I use a loaf pan for sammich bread and have a recipe that looks a bit like sfbayjay's but I freewheel a bit with some of the ingredients and include vital wheat glutens to help replace some of what was lost in the mash. Helps with lift and chewy texture to prevent it from being too dense, IMO.

It also feezes pretty well. I have used grains from anything from a blonde ale to dark porter to pumpkin ale to rye IPA's. The lighter grains will give less roasty or hearty taste but will show the sugar through (brown sugar or honey becomes apparent). I started using honey as a sort of natural preservative to help as much as possible as it will spoil relatively quickly without all the additives the major bakers use for preservatives.

Will post the recipe tonight.

 

[Golddiggie]

Here are the two loaves I made today/tonight...

Planning to cut into them tomorrow... I've let them cool down and have them wrapped in foil, inside a large ziplock bag (so they won't dry out any)... Smelled really, really good when baking... The one on the bottom was split with a knife and had butter poured into the cut before baking. The other was just scored a little with a knife (crosshatch pattern)... I'll post up images tomorrow of one of them cut open...

 

[Randar]

I put the spent (still wet) grains through my food processor to get them into a finer crush state.

This is the single most important step. I add the grains and any liquid additions to the blender and let it go for as long as possible to pulverize every last husk into oblivion. Nothing is worse than the sharp hulls being stuck in your teeth.

 

[Randar]

Thinking of punching it down, kneading it some, then putting it into the bowl (covering with a towel) for another hour (or so) until it doubles again. Then I'll split it into loaves, let rise, and bake on my pizza stone.

I get fluffier loaves when I let the second rise occur "in place". IN other words, I try to handle it as little as possible after the second rise. I also usually punch down before it has fully doubled. Punching down reduces some of the gaps and holes and fluffiness, so except for the loaves I am going to be using for sandwich bread, i hardly punch it down at all.

Spent grain (or any "whole grain") bread can be too dense if you over-handle the dough or punch it down overzealously.

 

[Randar]

Here's the recipe I use, easy and AWESOME. Pictures here: http://beerreviewdude.com/beer-recipes/spent-grain-beer-bread-recipe/

This recipe is essentially a modification of the Mark Bittman No-Knead Bread recipe. Simple and easy indeed.

Note about the dutch oven: it is not needed if you have a good convection oven and/or a bread/pizza stone.

Also, the technique Bittman uses of super-heating the oven and then dropping the temp at time = 0 creates a crazy-thick crust on spent grain breads. It can be almost unchewable, but with your oven (everyone's is different) and some slight tweaks to the technique, YMMV.

 

[Golddiggie]

I get fluffier loaves when I let the second rise occur "in place". IN other words, I try to handle it as little as possible after the second rise. I also usually punch down before it has fully doubled. Punching down reduces some of the gaps and holes and fluffiness, so except for the loaves I am going to be using for sandwich bread, i hardly punch it down at all.

Spent grain (or any "whole grain") bread can be too dense if you over-handle the dough or punch it down overzealously.

Well, I kneaded the dough twice, then let it rise while the stone was getting up to temp (on the pizza peal) before sliding it over to the stone to bake... I did that with both loaves, giving the stone enough time to recover between loaves (about 20 minutes, probably more than I needed to).

I cut into the round one just a few minutes ago to sample... Pretty damned good. Here are a couple of shots...

Really good texture, not heavy at all. I think sifting the flour before using it really helped out. I'm going to wait on making another batch until I've tasted the second loaf. I do think that I'll add a bit more butter with the next batch, and perhaps some honey too.