Time to Get Real About Eating Spent Grain

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Same here. I think the biggest downside of spent grain is that it is...umm...spent. The good stuff of the flours, grains and seeds that make great bread have already been extracted to make great beer. Spent grain is mostly just the left over husks. I have used it in bread and pretzels (as dried, dried and ground to flour, and wet). It is novel to take to a homebrew club meeting as a "spent grain" product (spent grain pretzels are a hit), but I have never really felt spent grain added anything positive to a food product. At about 1 cup per loaf of bread, you have to bake a LOT of bread to make a dent into the spent grains from 1 batch of beer.

I have been curious about grinding up some non-spent grain (say Crystal Malt, Golden Naked Oats, Munich Malt, Honey Malt, etc.) and using that in a loaf of bread. I just have not gotten around to it. Has anybody else tried?

I have also been curious about adding flour to a beer. The malted wheat that I often use is over $2 per lb, where a bag of whole wheat flour is around $1 per lb. Anybody tried this?
I have added flour to beers when I cannot find the appropriate whole-ish grain. All I can say is expect a really slow draining mash and sparge, and potential turbidity in the beer that will never drop out. It's not a good time.
 
I have added flour to beers when I cannot find the appropriate whole-ish grain. All I can say is expect a really slow draining mash and sparge, and potential turbidity in the beer that will never drop out. It's not a good time.
Other than watching a batch's total distatic power, and the issues with lautering, and further down the line with turbidity, I suppose wheat/corn/rice flour could be used....
 
I use spent grain on food for my family frequently.
I typically blend the sg with whatever liquid the recipe calls for, just for a smoother effect.
They do co tain some soluble fiber still, a lot of roughage, a fair amount of protein still, and surprisingly, still some carvohydrates. The carbs are not all converted during the mash.
Spent grain in compost functions as a green because of the protein. Protein=nitrogen. Same reason it is a good supplement to livestock feed.
I've made bread, muffins, brownies and the house favorite are the pancakes and waffles, they turn out similar to the Kodiak cakes from the store.
 
Well, yes a little spend grain does go a long way… I use them wet for bread and ”cookies” for my parrot. I don’t bother drying and grinding them to use in bread now, but who knows with inflation it might be desirable. And remember, if your spent grains are tasting good then your efficiency could be better. 😀
 
Ask @bracconiere... He might know ;)


i use my spent grain in the garden for growing tobacco....but i just had the thought due to your comment, what about 'second runnings' with like a gallon of milk to make malted milk? wouldn't keep the grain out of the garden, but that's where ends up one way or the other, as dirt....

edit: damn: DKU....

I have also been curious about adding flour to a beer. The malted wheat that I often use is over $2 per lb, where a bag of whole wheat flour is around $1 per lb. Anybody tried this?
i've used 5lb with 8 lbs barley malt....sparging is a SOB, but it got done....these were destined to be 10 gallon batches with 7 gallons strike water, for the record.....if i had to do it again, i'd try and make crackers out of the flour first to try to give it a bit more lauter capability...

1672959753965.png



that's when i first started malting, and didn't think i could dry 20lbs with just cool air flow, so i was using a food dehydrater....didn't want to feel like a total simp with the sugar so i was using white flour.....
 
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I stumbled upon this when I started brewing, Brewers grains | Feedipedia so with it in mind I try and utilize as much of the spent grains as possible whenever something is being baked. Thus far, we've added either dried or dried then pulverized to:

Pizza Crust
Sandwich Breads
Various other breads (Zucchini, Pumpkin, Banana)
Muffins
Pancakes

Pooch will get the occasional spent grain dog biscuit, but for fear of him being referred to as "Ottoman shaped" by our vet again, it doesn't happen very often.

I eat steel cut oatmeal every morning and add flax. Think I might try and add some of the ground up spent grains tomorrow morning and see how that turns out.

Whenever we don't have room for more grains, they get put into various vermicomposters I have on our side yard.

Threw some on the oatmeal this morning, other than being a little thicker I couldn't really tell. Maybe the banana I threw in there this morning masked it? These grains did have rice hulls in them, but like I mentioned they've been dried and pulverized via our blender into a fine powder.

So extra nutrition, fiber, etc., w/o much if any taste? Sounds like a win to me.
 
feel welcome.


it's not that off topic! we are talking about eating grains here? which gives me another thought....use a lot of wheat and use the mash to extract the gluten for seitan? or there's anti gluten people that say there's enough gluten in barley even to give them problems?
 
it's not that off topic! we are talking about eating grains here? which gives me another thought....use a lot of wheat and use the mash to extract the gluten for seitan? or there's anti gluten people that say there's enough gluten in barley even to give them problems?
All I know is, I like the taste and texture of spent grain. It reminds me of a hot cereal called Ralston. I don't know if they still make it. And anything that will facilitate a healthy deuce is welcome.
 
All I know is, I like the taste and texture of spent grain. It reminds me of a hot cereal called Ralston. I don't know if they still make it.

Ah, there's a long interesting history behind the cereal produced by Ralston - some of it unsavory.

For instance:
"The name Ralston stems from a minor social movement in the late 19th Century called Ralstonism - created by Webster Edgerly. Followers of the movement (about 800,000) followed the motto "Regime, Activity, Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen and Nature" - the first letters of which spelled out "Ralston".

Ralstonism required its adherents to follow very strict guidelines regarding diet and personal hygiene. Since the ideology's founder advocated the castration of all non-Caucasian males, it could be assumed that pro-Caucasionism and minority-exclusionism were additional tenants of the movement not covered by the "Ralston" moniker."

Yikes! :eek:
 
Ah, there's a long interesting history behind the cereal produced by Ralston - some of it unsavory.

For instance:
"The name Ralston stems from a minor social movement in the late 19th Century called Ralstonism - created by Webster Edgerly. Followers of the movement (about 800,000) followed the motto "Regime, Activity, Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen and Nature" - the first letters of which spelled out "Ralston".

Ralstonism required its adherents to follow very strict guidelines regarding diet and personal hygiene. Since the ideology's founder advocated the castration of all non-Caucasian males, it could be assumed that pro-Caucasionism and minority-exclusionism were additional tenants of the movement not covered by the "Ralston" moniker."

Yikes! :eek:
I'll stick with Maypo.
 
Ralstonism required its adherents to follow very strict guidelines regarding diet and personal hygiene. Since the ideology's founder advocated the castration of all non-Caucasian males, it could be assumed that pro-Caucasionism and minority-exclusionism were additional tenants of the movement not covered by the "Ralston" moniker."

Yikes! :eek:

Well, sure. It said that on the back of the box.
 
Ah, there's a long interesting history behind the cereal produced by Ralston - some of it unsavory.

For instance:
"The name Ralston stems from a minor social movement in the late 19th Century called Ralstonism - created by Webster Edgerly. Followers of the movement (about 800,000) followed the motto "Regime, Activity, Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen and Nature" - the first letters of which spelled out "Ralston".

Ralstonism required its adherents to follow very strict guidelines regarding diet and personal hygiene. Since the ideology's founder advocated the castration of all non-Caucasian males, it could be assumed that pro-Caucasionism and minority-exclusionism were additional tenants of the movement not covered by the "Ralston" moniker."

Yikes! :eek:
"It's not just for Eugenicists anymore!"
 
"It's not just for Eugenicists anymore!"

so as a caucasian male, my idea of the malted milk should use the 'special' 4% milk, that i used to see at the store?


edit: on a more serious note, being that everything water soluble has hopefully been extracted already for the wort....would a more fatty concoction be something to think about?
 
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hijack my threads makes me feel welcome.


i just want to say most people ignore my threads, and when my one about winding extension cords went off the rails with details like 90° angles, i loved it!

well anyway, the topic of eating spent grain, and that comment, and you reacting to people trying to get creative had me wondering of the sincerity...and concerned, i like the fact you don't brew to any style!
 
I like to take it and add some butter,salt and pepper. Reminds me of steel cut oats with more flavor. I try not to eat too much but it seems to help with my IBD somewhat. the rest I use to make doggy cookies.


mixing it up with the fat, do you notice any mild gluten formation? asking for a friend......
 
I have added flour to beers when I cannot find the appropriate whole-ish grain. All I can say is expect a really slow draining mash and sparge, and potential turbidity in the beer that will never drop out. It's not a good time.
Spent grain is high in fiber content and protein, so much so that there is a fairly big movement in Europe to use even more for human consumption. I attended an online event a year or so ago put on by (Breaking barriers to accelerate the transition I Foodvalley NL) and was amazed at the possibilities. There are businesses in Europe and in the U.S. that are using spent grain as the primary input to making foods and other items like biodegradable plastics.

All that said, it will most likely be a while before homebrew spent grains can be consistently funneled into any of these business processes.
 
I went through a spell of making bread with it. I had trouble getting the bread to bake all the way through (which probably had nothing to do with the spent grain) and it made a heavy bread. These days it goes into the compost bin to turn into great fertilizer for my gardens.
 
Sorry. Lost me at "dry spent grains in the oven for 9 hours"
Yeah, that's indeed totally ridiculous. That's why I use spent grain that's wet. If I would need it dryer, I'd squeeze it.

Sometimes I freeze a few 48 oz cottage cheese tubs filled with wet spent grain, to be used for baking past the initial 2-3 days.
 
Here’s my recipe for 2 loaves because of the size of my KA mixer. This is a recipe that uses the grains damp and adjusts the hydration for it. Since we are never 100 percent sure about the water content, if you are an experienced baker use your judgement about how the dough should feel/behave and take a temperature. The bread isn’t cooked through until it’s 200-210F and the probe is clean.
'Homemade Bread Thread'
Homemade Bread Thread
 
There are businesses in Europe and in the U.S. that are using spent grain as the primary input to making foods and other items like biodegradable plastics.
SG could be used for growing mushrooms 🍄!..

Forget about crackers, bread and cookies, the biggest bang for the buck will be for drying and making protein powder so we can grow 20-inch arms like Nate and Damien from TH did back in 2016..

1673062239506.jpeg
 
By the way it seems spent grain is not that friendly as it can kill horses.. and if the mash was hopped, don’t feed it to your dog as it can kill them too, hoppy dog treats = dead dog. Same with grapes I heard… 💀💀💀💀

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/spent-grains-to-horses.703861/
If using spent grain to grow Tobacco, please do not use Tobacco for brewing as liquid Nicotine has a very low LD50 (in the milligrams/Kg weight) and can easily poison if not kill a human, rumor has it that in jail when people want to commit suicide they soak cigarettes in hot water and then drink the water..

Raw spent grain = dead horse, dead dog and deadly tobacco… so +1 for protein powder and 20-inch arms…
 
By the way it seems spent grain is not that friendly as it can kill horses.. and if the mash was hopped, don’t feed it to your dog as it can kill them too, hoppy dog treats = dead dog. Same with grapes I heard… 💀💀💀💀

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/spent-grains-to-horses.703861/
If using spent grain to grow Tobacco, please do not use Tobacco for brewing as liquid Nicotine has a very low LD50 (in the milligrams/Kg weight) and can easily poison if not kill a human, rumor has it that in jail when people want to commit suicide they soak cigarettes in hot water and then drink the water..

Raw spent grain = dead horse, dead dog and deadly tobacco… so +1 for protein powder and 20-inch arms…
The mushrooms are collonizing the spent grain substrate quite well it seems. But it must be autoclaved and sterile, otherwise the sugars in solution there make any mikroorganism go rampage. Imagine a wild yeast, some lactic acid bacteria and some mold get hold on these..... instantly gone.
 
I've tried roasting the spent grains on a cookie sheet in the oven, then putting into the blender to make it more like flour and then using it as an ingredient in bread. A little is good, but too much makes the bread heavier than I like. I decided its really not really worth all the extra effort. I've made some mostly wheat beers in the past and never thought about trying to save that for bread, thanks for the idea, ebbelwoi.
I have had the same experience with drying and making into a flour. The spent grain flour doesn't seem to act as a flour substitute and the bread doesn't rise and is very heavy.
 
i use my spent grain in the garden for growing tobacco....
How do you do it? Do you use it for a Fertiliser, or as a Mulch material?

This year I'm going to start growing my own tobacco (say hi to your another time-consuming hobby, Mr Protos).
I'm a pipe smoker mainly but time to time I enjoy a roll-my-own cigarette as well, my cigarette tobacco stock is almost over and I don't want to restock it for the ridiculous prices they charge for it now.
 
2-cups packed brown or yellow sugar
1-cup veg. oil (or lard or butter or whatever)
2-large eggs
mix together well,
1-1/2 cups flour
1-cup flaked oats (omit if in mash)
2-cups spent grains
1/4 cup raisins (or smahed hazelnuts, chocolate chips...whatever you like)
roll into balls about the size of a walnut or golf ball and press a little flat on baking sheet
bake at 350° about 10 mins

I think that's how I've done it... yes you get a few husks in your teeth, but hey; it helps clean your gumline :p and they taste great!.

EDIT: I forgot; If the mix is too dry, I add up to a 1/4 cup of black coffee to get the consistency right.
 
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How do you do it? Do you use it for a Fertiliser, or as a Mulch material?

This year I'm going to start growing my own tobacco (say hi to your another time-consuming hobby, Mr Protos).
I'm a pipe smoker mainly but time to time I enjoy a roll-my-own cigarette as well, my cigarette tobacco stock is almost over and I don't want to restock it for the ridiculous prices they charge for it now.


well, i just dump it in the garden...not sure if it helps really.

and happy farming! curing it is an art....:mug:
 
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curing it is an art....
That's where I failed my last attempt, 7 years ago. Planted the transplants, babied them through the summer, harvested successfully and then lost the entire batch to mold in a screwed curing.
Not unlike spoiling a nice wort with a filthy infected yeast.
This year will grow my plants from the seeds.
Again, not unlike growing a yeast starter out of a single cell (just way longer and immensely more difficult).
 
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