Spent grain question

[Iceman6409]

Hey boys and girls. For those of you that save your spent grain for other things such as bread, pizza crust, Scooby snacks, etc. Do you dry the grains out on the oven right after they are available or do you put the wet grains in a baggie and then freeze them?

 

[JimRausch]

I spread them on a cookie sheet and dry in the oven at 250*.

 

[hopkincr]

I second that.

 

[Imhoppy]

My steeped grains from my extract brews go into the oven at 170F (lowest setting) just after the 60-minute boil starts.

 

[Richbo69]

Hmmm.....mine currently get fed to the deer, but maybe I should explore some other options. My labs might like some Scooby Snacks!

 

[Robert65]

For spent grain bread (Treberbrot in German) dry the grain and then grind it in a flour mill. I don't see why freezing it for drying at a later time wouldn't work though, and would make brewday less crazy.

 

[FrostyBeach]

I found some folks that keep chickens and trade grain for eggs.

 

[day_trippr]

~20 pounds or more of spent grain is a bit much to dump on the neighbor's dozen chickens in one shot, so they get half and the deer the rest. The former go nutty for two days and the latter have beaten a path to the compost pile over the years...

Cheers!

[edit] Just remembered this revelation: our deer do not like rice hulls, full stop. They will scarf up every bit of a mash done sans hulls but totally ignore any mash with them.

Chickens, otoh, will leave the hulls on the ground. The pen area I always spread my spent grains on is carpeted with rice hulls (which are amazingly persistent)...

 

[bracconiere]

i use it as tobacco fertilizer...not sure if it helps, either to the question, or my plants....

 

[Robert65]

i use it as tobacco fertilizer...not sure if it helps, either to the question, or my plants....

When I had some acreage and grew hops, I mulched them with my spent grain... it seemed like a poetic, balance in the universe, kind of thing. Pretty sure it didn't help the hops much, if only because the real problem there was Japanese beetles.

 

[bracconiere]

When I had some acreage and grew hops, I mulched them with my spent grain... it seemed like a poetic, balance in the universe, kind of thing. Pretty sure it didn't help the hops much, if only because the real problem there was Japanese beetles.

i feel the same, but the three months of homegrown cigarettes was better.....

 

[IslandLizard]

I sometimes store some in the fridge for baking 4-8 loaves next day or day after. The wet grain is the base to which I add yeast, salt, and enough flour to make a thick, barely pourable dough that goes into forms. Rise 2x, pour/ladle, proof and bake.
I also freeze some. I never dry and remill it, waste of energy, IMO.

But yeah, 15-20# of wet mash is a lot to process, so most goes on the compost heap. Or feed to the goats on a small local farm.
None gets reused if there are any rice hulls in it, not even for animal feed.

 

[bracconiere]

take me to your spent grain , lol

 

[ba-brewer]

Neighbor has a couple horses that get my spent grain. Best part is when they nay at me when they hear my truck and see it slowing down and stop. They will stop eating when they hear my truck but only nay when I stop. Funny to see them eyeballing me as I drive past.

Had a stray cat that used to get a hand full on brew day too. I seen it eating some skimmed protein scum off the dirt one day so started leaving it a little grain. Had to stop when he/she brought buddies back. Then we had a Airedale size bobcat working the neighborhood and the strays vamoosed(or got eaten).

 

[FrostyBeach]

~20 pounds or more of spent grain is a bit much to dump on the neighbor's dozen chickens in one shot

Indeed, I just give the buckets of spent grain to the chicken people and rely on them to dole it out. Never feed the deer here they do too much damage.

 

[Robert65]

the chicken people

Just got a picture of that in my head. You must live in a strange place.

 

[kevin58]

I put spent grains in the woods behind my house. The deer eat the grains and later I get to eat venison with a glass of beer made from those same grains.

 

[FrostyBeach]

<g> the chicken people</g> the deer do much damage here that I cannot leave it out for them.

 

[ba-brewer]

Chickens are salvage, the thought of "chicken people" is pretty scary.

 

[FrostyBeach]

y'all are a tad scary.