ktm250
Well-Known Member
I don't want spent grain near my house as compost - so what do you do with spent grains?
I feed them to my chickens. They love spent grain.
I don't want spent grain near my house as compost - so what do you do with spent grains?
I've learned my lesson for future storage...
I've dumped spent grains near my house several times - its awful. Each time i do it I say "never again", then what happens after a long brew day - on side of the house it goes. The smell lingers for what seems ages and people start to notice, and then things start to die.
Rats, and such love spent grains; a while back I had a mouse problem because of it. I was actually going to start another thread about asking people what they actually do with spent grains. I know people say things like.."dog biscuits..bread...compost.."...however, in practice i don't think the average brewer has time/want to make bread from spent grains. And from my experience (and the post about the compost gone awry), I don't want spent grain near my house as compost - so what do you do with spent grains?
I avoided this thread just because...but, bored with the NFL tonite, I opened it.
Aaaaand I just threw up in my mouth a little
I feed them to my chickens. They love spent grain.
If a brew shop has bins I won't buy grains there. They either have weevils in the grain or use enough pesticide to prevent infestation; in either case I'd rather buy from a shop that sells grain in sealed bags.Was at my LHBS a week ago, went to grab their plastic bin of Carafa Special II and noticed about 10 weevils on the cover. Looked like most of them were dead, but a few were alive and kicking. Makes me think all the grain there may have them!
Meh if you can't handle being on a farm .. with bugs and rodents and all that goes with grain .. then you should rethink all grain brewing. It has ALL had something in it at one time or another. Or assume that anyway. The boil will kill it. You freezer will knock the buggers out. I'm not saying "buy infested grain,' but I am saying 'don't be surprised if something got in the grain at some point,'
If a brew shop has bins I won't buy grains there. They either have weevils in the grain or use enough pesticide to prevent infestation; in either case I'd rather buy from a shop that sells grain in sealed bags.
Anyone know what the Diastatic power of a weevil is?
I had weevils in some flaked barley last summer. I only had it in the flaked barley which was stored in zip lock bags with other grains in zip lock bags. As I read they wouldnt effect a brew I just put the bags of FB in the freezer for a few days to kill the weevils and brewed the the FB in a few subsequent brews.
I started to do that with mine, but I decided if I hadn't even opened the flaked barley in a year I probably wasn't going to use it anyway. (I bought it to use in place of Carapils in recipes that call for that, but I don't seem to ever brew those)
If I ever buy flaked grains again I will store them in the freezer.
I've dumped spent grains near my house several times - its awful. Each time i do it I say "never again", then what happens after a long brew day - on side of the house it goes. The smell lingers for what seems ages and people start to notice, and then things start to die.
Rats, and such love spent grains; a while back I had a mouse problem because of it. I was actually going to start another thread about asking people what they actually do with spent grains. I know people say things like.."dog biscuits..bread...compost.."...however, in practice i don't think the average brewer has time/want to make bread from spent grains. And from my experience (and the post about the compost gone awry), I don't want spent grain near my house as compost - so what do you do with spent grains?
Enter your email address to join: