What do you do with the spent grain?

[jim4065]

I've simply been throwing mine away, but all of this snow makes me wonder if it could be resurrected as birdseed? I saw that someone here feeds it to deer, but there are damn few deer near my house. Does it have enough nutritional value left to be worth feeding out?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Yup. Larger operations sell it/give it away to ranchers.

I compost mine.

 

[david_42]

Yes, it still has most of the protein in it and about 20% of the starches.

 

[Airborneguy]

I dump it over the fence into the back of a cemetery where a ton of birds always hang out. They clean it up in a few days.

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

compost, dog biscuits, homemade pretzels, bread, etc.

 

[McKBrew]

When I was doing extract beers, the birds in Hawaii would go nuts with my steeping grains.

For some reason nothing will touch my AG grain, not sure why. (It doesn't have nearly as much flavor as the steeping grains did, so maybe that's it.)

 

[malc]

+1 on the bread and pretzels.

 

[cheezerman]

My compost goes WILD over my spent grain!

 

[flyerwire]

compost here too, running out of room though, waiting for spring so i can mix some of my compost in with my garden to get some room for more grains... nm, i looked it up via the all wondrous search

 

[boogyman]

compost, yard waste bin, and dog biscuits .. the dog loves it.

 

[xeerohour]

Well, I can say I've learned not to pour it out and let the fiancee's dogs get into it - it came back out from both of them. Unfortunately they were inside at the time

 

[MeatyPortion]

I made dog biscuits with mine.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/

 

[adx]

I toss mine into the woods too. They're usually gone in about a week.

 

[djt17]

My wife's horse loves brew day!

 

[machinelf]

Our chickens love spent grains!

 

[DavidSteel]

+1 on the bread and pretzels.

Pretzels? How do I shot pretzels? Recipe?

 

[PinkyOFloyd]

A cup or two for bread & the rest goes in the garden.

 

[hal2814]

Dumped at the tree line in my back yard. Animals in my area won't touch our spent grain so it sits there and composts.

 

[flyerwire]

i'd love to find a place around here to just give it to, i will start taking a bunch out for dog treats, maybe i'll try to make a profitable enterprise out of 5 minutes of my time like another poster here... its better then throwing it out when my composter is full

 

[ahoffman565]

I made dog biscuits for the first time and the dog loves them more than Milk Bones! I dried all the grain first (so it would keep longer). That was the biggest pain, but it was worth it in the end. I'd love to hear a bread or pretzel recipe.

 

[Brocster]

I live in a large cul-de-sac right next to a nature area. Grain goes in the middle of the cul-de-sac (about 1/2 acre of trees and stuff) and the little critters have some free snacks.

 

[manticle]

Empty garden bed for compost/mulch.

In summer I have to continually turn it over to prevent/lessen it getting flyblown but the hop bines and herbs seem to love it.

 

[kinison_fan]

I've tried to compost it-thrown on top of the pile...but the deer eat it in a couple of days.

I was going to toss it on top of my hops bed, but knowing the deer like the grains, I don't want to draw their attention to my hops.

 

[Lodovico]

Anyone have a pretzel recipe for your spent grains?

 

[mnstorm99]

Another composter here, that stuff is like gold in there.

 

[DavidSteel]

I've tried to compost it-thrown on top of the pile...but the deer eat it in a couple of days.

I was going to toss it on top of my hops bed, but knowing the deer like the grains, I don't want to draw their attention to my hops.

lol they'd probably eat them and get very sick or/and die

 

[Blindguardian]

Recipe for spent grain beer bread:

3 cups of spent grain (wet)
1.5 cups warm (~100 F) water
1 package (1 tablespoon) dry BAKERS yeast
1/3 cup sugar (I prefer brown)
3-5 cups flour
Dash of salt (optional)

Proof yeast in mixture of water and sugar (make a starter). You should see krausen in less than an hour.
Put spent grain in large mixer bowl. Mix in starter, and start adding flour. Keep adding flour until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Place dough in a large bowl, cover with a clean towel, and let rise until doubled. Punch down dough, and either:
A) Split into two loaves and place in greased bread pans
B) Form into a round loaf and place on cookie sheet with a thin layer of corn meal under the loaf.
Allow loaf to double in size, bake in 375 F oven 30 to 40 minutes until browned and then test with the toothpick method until it comes out clean after being inserted into the center of the loaf.

and a another recipe:

Steve Morrisey’s Spent Grain Bread
When you make all grain beer save the grain. Use sandwich size zip lock bags.
Fill up 3 or 4 bags. Then freeze them until you bake bread.
2 cups Spent Grain (put the grain in a coffee grinder or food processor and grind them up)
4 cups Bread Flour
1 cup Wheat Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 cup of Sugar
1/2 Stick of Butter
1 Egg (Beaten)
2 cup of Warm Water
1 TBS. of Olive Oil
1/2 cup of warm water & 2 1/4 tsp. Bread yeast
Mix together and knead with 1 more cup of flour.
Let rise and flatten down divide into 2 or 4 pc. Depends on how big you want your bread loafs or roll little balls to make rolls. Freeze the rest and take out when you want more bread.
Let it rise again and bake.
Bake at 350F for 35 min. for loafs or 10-12 min. for rolls.
Use corn meal on cookie sheet so loaf does not stick to pan.
1 tsp. Olive Oil to brush the top of the bread when it comes out of the oven.


Pretzel or Breadstick Dough
1 pkg yeast
5-6 cups flour
1 cup spent grain
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups warm water
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine all sic ingredients and knead. Flour surface and then take a small ball of the
dough and roll it out to create the pretzel or breadstick. Do not leave dough to rise. It
takes some work to roll out the bread sticks or pretzels. Keep trying!
Once you have created the pretzel or stick, place/drop it in a pan of boiling water that has
5 teaspoons of baking soda in it for one minute. Remove and put on greased cookie
sheet.
Before baking, brush with egg whites and if desired add salt. Kosher salt is larger and
gives a neat look and taste to your pretzel. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, no longer. Cool
on a rack and enjoy with mustard, cheese, salsa or plain.

 

[sakeyfour]

I make dog biscuits, will have to try the bread and pretzels

 

[sirsloop]

Grain is lousy for a dogs digestive system...regardless of how much they like it. A dog will eat chocolate and antifreeze, doesn't mean that's good for them either.

Mine gets dumped into a pile over my back fence. IDK... maybe this year I'll build a compost bin out of some pallets.

 

[Joker]

Feed it to the chickens, turkeys, and pigs when we have them.

 

[klfiend]

you can grow some species of mushrooms off sterilized spent grain namely oysters which are very good eatin'. Anyone with a pressure cooker and some quart size canning jars can do it, instructions are just a search away...

 

[BA_from_GA]

+1 for compost, bread, dog treats.

 

[mightynintendo]

I've tried to compost it-thrown on top of the pile...but the deer eat it in a couple of days.

I was going to toss it on top of my hops bed, but knowing the deer like the grains, I don't want to draw their attention to my hops.

I doubt the deer would do much to your hops.

 

[flyerwire]

i made a batch of dog treats and 2 loaves of bread this weekend, fantastic. Dog loves me and the bread was awesome. Still didnt put a dent into my grain. I need everything to thaw so i can start composting again

 

[brewagentjay]

Feed them to my horses....they smell me brewing and stand at the fence and wait....

 

[Randar]

I make bread but can only go through a fraction of the spent grain I output. I have a dual-bin compost-tumbler and that thing chews it up in combination with the lawn/garden clippings. I wish our village let us have chickens, cause I would have someone else who would appreciate the brew byproducts then!

 

[Clayton]

just sling the grain out across the lawn , you dont have to make a compost pile.
its crazy to throw it in the trash if you have a yard , just spread it out thin and it will be gone in no time.

 

[jjones17]

Another composter here, that stuff is like gold in there.

Gah?

I wish I could say the same. I put about 4 batches worth into my compost, and after a few weeks it started to stink like a corpse. I looked into it, and....

It turns out spent grains are a 'green' (which means a higher nitrogen to carbon ratio), so my composted had wayyyyyy to many greens. I had to add like 10+ newspapers, 15 cardboard boxes etc to bring the ratio in line. The story ends good now, since I have a crapload of what will be black gold by june!!

 

[ibbones]

Gah?

I wish I could say the same. I put about 4 batches worth into my compost, and after a few weeks it started to stink like a corpse. I looked into it, and....

It turns out spent grains are a 'green' (which means a higher nitrogen to carbon ratio), so my composted had wayyyyyy to many greens. I had to add like 10+ newspapers, 15 cardboard boxes etc to bring the ratio in line. The story ends good now, since I have a crapload of what will be black gold by june!!

I have been composting mine and they do take a long time. Also the flies LOVE to make woopie and lay eggs. I started turning mine as soon as i added them. Mix them up with the leaves and stuff and it makes a big difference. Keeps the flies down also.

 

[pkeeler]

I give the dog a bowl full, and give the rest to the chickens. Dog gets plenty of eggs anyway, so he shouldn't be too upset.