What do you do with the spent grain (from your mash)??

[crazyjake19]

My mom and one of my friends have chickens, so if they're in the area I'll give them some.

If I have enough brown/carbon matter on hand, I'll add spent grains to my compost bins. They're "green" and high in nitrogen, so you need a lot of brown/carbon to balance and keep it aerated, or you'll have a stinky compost pile.

If I'm preparing a garden bed for the following year, I'll add some spent grain directly to the soil and mix it in well. I wouldn't add it directly to soil with existing plants, too much nitrogen.

Sometimes I'll dry some during the boil and make granola/energy bars later on in the day, or add some to yogurt and make a parfait. I've also made bread and dog treats with spent grains in the past, but our dog is a picky eater so I usually don't go this route.

We're thinking about getting our own chickens next year, and if we do most of my spent grain will likely be going to them.

 

[crazyjake19]

Mine goes from the BIAB bag to a garbage bag then into the garbage can.

I tried composting but I think 25 lbs of grain or more each batch overwhelmed the system.

I don't have a garden or friends with farm animals and when I tried spreading grain around the backyard my dogs couldn't stay out of it.

If you have dogs don't let them get into the hops. In the 90s my chocolate lab (RIP Bridgette) got into some spent hops I tossed in my previous backyard and we had to have her stomach pumped.

25lbs of wet spent grain would need a LOT of brown/carbon material (paper, cardboard, sticks, dry leaves) to keep balance, even with a 2:1 ratio of green:brown.

 

[krispn]

I was donating mine to local lady who keeps a lot of animals but her chickens in particular love the grains. By happy coincidence we got a puppy and were needing a dog walker service and lo and behold the same lady runs a dog walking business. When I asked her if she had availability she didn't but made the exception due to the quite regular grain dumps! I'm expecting some eggs from her too as she now knows where I live - I just used to drop them off to her place. I am tempted to make dog biscuits too but just havent gotten to it yet. I am making an imp stout next week so might save some grains and see if the pooch enjoys the biscuits... but I do enjoy me some free eggs!

 

[Orval]

In France (Normandy) a brewery makes cookies both salted or sweet and sells them, but does not tell the recipe...
https://www.biscuitslesrescapes.com/rescapes-citron/they call them rescapés (de la cuve), survivors (from the brewing kettle)...

This guy, an Italian who lives in Thailand, who also makes some fruit wines, beers and many other things explains his recipes, he speaks English:

- Cookies
- Beer bread

 

[archi77]

I've also made banana nut bread with them, which reminds me I need to find that recipe again.

I love a good banana nut bread. When you find the recipe, can you share it please?

 

[rhys333]

I compost most of my spent grains, and as others point out they require a TON of carbon to balance them out. Dry leaves work the best for me, or chopped straw as I run out of leaves in late summer.

To stop the pile getting too acidic, I've found that ground-up EGGSHELLS are highly beneficial. The calcium carbonate appears to neutralize the acidifying effects of the grain.

 

[crazyjake19]

I compost most of my spent grains, and as others point out they require a TON of carbon to balance them out. Dry leaves work the best for me, or chopped straw as I run out of leaves in late summer.

To stop the pile getting too acidic, I've found that ground-up EGGSHELLS are highly beneficial. The calcium carbonate appears to neutralize the acidifying effects of the grain.

Besides dry leaves, another big one that I was missing for a long time was shredded paper. We used to throw out or recycle tons of paper until I bought a $30 shredder from Walmart and started shredding whatever I could. I didn't realize how much paper we were tossing before that. Shredded cardboard is a big one too with all the packages we get, but it's more work to shred or cut up.

 

[Golddiggie]

Wonder how charcoal ash would work for the carbon needs when composting spent grains. I have a BGE, and use it to both grill and smoke meats (whole turkey breast section each week, then whatever I need for dinners the rest of the week). I don't have a compost setup since I would have nothing to use it with. Next place that might change.

 

[Wables]

I put them about 30 yards from my garage and the deer eat them within a couple days. I’ve dumped them after the mash and deer have been eating them when I cleaned my BK.

 

[kevin58]

They go into the woods and like Wabels says, the deer eat them. Then I harvest one or two of those deer and enjoy a Venison dinner while sipping a homebrew made with the grain that fed the deer that now feeds my family.

 

[BrewZer]

They gave my dogs the shits, so my wife said "no more for the puppies".

Aha! Treats for the dogs that are constantly "visiting" your yard on their daily walks...

They go into the woods and like Wabels says, the deer eat them. Then I harvest one or two of those deer and enjoy a Venison dinner while sipping a homebrew made with the grain that fed the deer that now feeds my family.

It's the circle of life.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I compost most. And like others, make dog treats, pizza dough, bread, and once, cookies. I didn't care for the cookies.

Someday, I'll have chickens.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

At this house, I dump them at the edge of the woods.

A neighbor keeps chickens, next time I will check with him and see if he wants them.

 

[Golddiggie]

@Dr_Jeff From what the woman who has the chickens that gets the grain post mash, they go absolutely NUTS over the grain. Even though her hens have stopped putting out eggs, I'll keep giving her the grain. Since the chicks need to eat until spring anyway. Earning egg credits.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

@Golddiggie Oh, I know that chickens love the stuff, at my last house, I had several people that kept chickens and they would come and get the spent grain. One farmer told me that they produce more when they have the spent grain.

 

[Golddiggie]

@Golddiggie Oh, I know that chickens love the stuff, at my last house, I had several people that kept chickens and they would come and get the spent grain. One farmer told me that they produce more when they have the spent grain.

That's what I've been told too. They put out more (maybe larger too) eggs while they're eating the grain. I hope to find someone with chickens close to where I move to next. Especially if things go to plan and I'm producing even more grain for them to eat.

 

[odie]

I dump it in my compost bin and the chickens jump in the bin and have at it.

 

[SMD]

Lately I’ve been dumping them off the side of my deck into the bushes. Sunday my wife went to let our dog in shortly after dumping and this is what we found…

 

[homebeerbrewer]

My dog loves cleaning my grain mill.

 

[pwortiz]

Caution: Don't try to eat spent grains that have rice or oat hulls in them or oat malt! The mouthfeel is terrible, making it inedible, like a mouthful of razor blades (rice hulls) or leather shavings (oat hulls, oat malt).

I was just wondering about that with the rice hulls. Last couple batches of high gravity beers have had a little bit of a challenge with the sparge so I chucked a half pound into the mash today. I usually save my grains and oven dry them. Was curious about the rice hull portion/drying since I haven't used them much. I assume just an extra amount of fiber in the end.

The difference for me is that I have a flour mill and after drying, I make spent grain flour with them and in recipes like pancakes and the like, I'll use 50/50 all purpose/spent grain flour. This will be the first time I have rice hulls in the flour, I think, but with the issues we're told are coming up regarding grain shortages, etc, I'm not going to waste this.

 

[IslandLizard]

The difference for me is that I have a flour mill and after drying, I make spent grain flour with them [...]

That may make all the difference, depending on how finely those rice hulls get milled. Eating them when still whole, not a good experience.

 

[Spartan1979]

I tried mixing them into the garden soil and spreading them out over the lawn but it attracted ants. We have enough ants as it is so they go into the trash. We don't have enough space to try composting.