Spent grains and composting

[kkocher13]

I have been making pizza and bread with the spent grains. A pizza crust with spent grains gets this wonderful earthy and rustic quality. If you haven't tried it, make the attempt, but you can't use 30 lbs of grains that way. You would need to make about 60 pizzas. I may need to try the dog biscuits.

 

[RichBenn]

We've had no problems with compost, but so far it's been in the minority with grass clippings, other foods, etc. No bad smells so far.

In terms of other uses -- our chickens love this stuff! And it makes the best bread additive! So I can imagine dog biscuits are the bomb, as well!

 

[Synovia]

grain is not really part of a dog's diet and they have no use for it. i wont feed my dog spent grain

Contrary to popular belief, and what the raw-ies will tell you, dogs, like bears, are not carnivores. They are omnivores.

Wild dogs/wolves/etc eat everything from meat to fruits, vegetables and occasional tubers.

 

[springer]

My Newfie goes crazy for apples and bananas and wheat beer. The lab not so much she likes Brown ales .

 

[Chad]

I have an Earth Machine compost bin. We compost all of our kitchen vegetable & fruit scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, dryer lint, dog hair, etc. in it. The only time mine smells is when I have too much "green" material (like the above) and it's out of balance. A batch of spent grain or yard leaves balances it out pretty quickly. I have noticed quite a bit of increased activity after adding hot spent grains and mixing them in well. The worms and micro-bugs seem to love the warmth and added "brown" material.

As an added bonus, now that we're composting our kitchen waste in addition to getting a larger recycling bin, our garbage output is about a third of what it was before. That's pretty cool.

 

[rocketman768]

Contrary to popular belief, and what the raw-ies will tell you, dogs, like bears, are not carnivores. They are omnivores.

Wild dogs/wolves/etc eat everything from meat to fruits, vegetables and occasional tubers.

Yeah. Dogs were selected by us, so most breeds have evolved to digest exactly what we eat for the most part (or at least our scraps). Also, what is with raw food people? Humans evolved to eat cooked food. When we grew brains, our nutrition requirements went through the roof. Cooking is like an external digestion step which makes more nutrients available to us so that we don't have to eat twice as much for the same benefit.

 

[nicadrick]

Can you feed mashed out grains to chickens?

 

[HotbreakHotel]

My dog can't tolerate grains anymore -- neither can my cat. But they're both becoming geriatric.

My compost usually stinks because it's disproportionately spent grain. I don't have enough other compostable waste to balance it except maybe in the fall when I get fallen leaves. It's a good thing I live in the country.

Nevertheless, long after going through the smells-like-a-dead-animal stage, the spent grain becomes an absolutely lovely, fluffy compost.

 

[RichBenn]

Can you feed mashed out grains to chickens?

I do, and they love it!

 

[RichBenn]

Humans evolved to eat cooked food. When we grew brains, our nutrition requirements went through the roof. Cooking is like an external digestion step which makes more nutrients available to us so that we don't have to eat twice as much for the same benefit.

The truth is, in vegetables, most nutients are lost due to cooking. Grains are different in that out digestive systems do not fully digest them.

The evolutionary tale with cooking is spoilage. People who found the taste of raw, rotting beef OK, for example, were culled from the gene pool.

Those who learned how to mash grains passed their genes on, obviously!

 

[joety]

I do, and they love it!

The local geese love the spent grains I throw in the garden, but then, they'll eat anything.

 

[abracadabra]

The truth is, in vegetables, most nutients are lost due to cooking. Grains are different in that out digestive systems do not fully digest them.

That really depends on what you are and or are not cooking. Cooked carrots for example have more available nutrients than raw carrots.

As far as the smell goes it is due to what is called anaerobic digestion (meaning without air) by using a pitch fork or forked spade and turning the compost over exposing it to air that will help and one of the reasons leaves and grass clipping help is because there is oxygen in the space it creates. Whereas spent grains are compacted and between that and the water in the grains there is not much if any oxygen for an aerobic digestion. So the anaerobic digestion process starts. By the same token if you take a pitch fork and get the grains nice and fluffed up at the start the aerobic digestion process will begin.

But by turning the compost beds contents over you can go from anaerobic digestion, which stinks to aerobic digestion which does not stink but rather has the smell of freely dug earth.

The choice is yours.

 

[budbo]

I just spread mine over the yard, or dump them on the tree mulch because it pisses off one of my neighbors.

I have the best grass on the block, so the grass truly is greener where the grains are spread as organic fertilizer

 

[bigin31]

There is an article on here about how to use spent grain as dog biscuits. Pretty neat.

 

[jds]

I have a retention pond across the street from my house. Grass clippings and spent grains get spread out on the banks of the retention pond. I figure the neighborhood birds and furry critters appreciate it, and after a hard rain or big snow, they magically disappear.

 

[Montanaandy]

My dogs love the spent grains

I don't sweeten them up I just bake them in the oven @ 350' for 30 minutes. Break it up into chunks. Can't give them too much though because of the fibre Montanaandy

 

[JVD_X]

alot of times I just dig a trench next to my veggies,dump them in,cover them up. then next year I move veggie row over to where I burried the grains and start over. Yes they can STINK!

They smell like an elementary school nurse station during flu season... VOMIT.

 

[bradfleenor]

I feed my spent grains to my chickens and turkeys and they love them.
They are gone in no time at all.

 

[ibbones]

I just checked my compost pile from last weeks brew. Lots of flies and I took a stick and poked around and stirred up a bunch of maggots. I guess that's part of the break down process.Maybe I should have mixed it all up with the rest of the stuff.

 

[brrman]

If you mix it all up and get oxygen in there on a regular basis there wont be maggots (that is if you have a good balance of compost material)

 

[kinison_fan]

Mine is more of a compost pile, than bin by the edge of the property that is wooded.
I toss the grains on top of the pile, and there gone by the next day or so: deer.
(aka Big PA white tailed rats.)

 

[claphamsa]

I have a **** ton of leaves in my compost so its balanced.... I think

 

[Pumpkinman906]

60% Browns/40% Greens is a balanced compost pile. Aeration is key to keeping it hot because the microbes need oxygen to continue breaking down the organics. Turn the pile at least once a week if you use bins or better yet, build another bin and pitch it from one to the other every week. A good hot pile that is well aerated can be ready for the garden in 2 months.