What do you do with your spent grains?

[ChemE]

I was feeding them to our sheep, but the Great Pyrenese dogs kept eating them.

Your dogs kept eating your sheep?

 

[zombie]

This thread is timely. I brewed on Sunday and was thinking as I dumped the spent grain in the trash, "what a waste".

 

[Got Trub?]

Our chickens can tell when it is brewing day and they pace back and forth until they get their share of the spent grains.

GT

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

I'd dump mine out past the back yard for the deer, but I'd probably break an ankle carrying them up the steep rocky hill.

Used to give them to a neighbor for compost but he moved away. Wish we had a food waste pickup.

Hmm.. I've been meaning to build a catapult. I could then launch them over the house and up the hill! (perhaps at an ocassional annoying neighbor)

 

[HotbreakHotel]

I could then launch them over the house and up the hill! (perhaps at an ocassional annoying neighbor)

Let them age a few days first. They can get really bad smelling!!

I compost them. I agree they make beautiful compost.

 

[schweaty]

I make treats for my pooch. She loves them and the beer they've made!

 

[alee]

Quote:
Originally Posted by alee
I was feeding them to our sheep, but the Great Pyrenese dogs kept eating them.

Your dogs kept eating your sheep

Ha Ha! That did sound a little funny. The dogs ate all the grain. I had the misfortune of kneeling in a pile of grain poo last weekend. Talk about smelling sour, especially when it finds the one hole in the knee of your jeans and makes skin contact! I suppose I could have recycled them again!

 

[wallacebw]

I make treats for my pooch. She loves them and the beer they've made!

Can you share how you make the dog treats... my boxer would love this...

 

[carl spakler]

I bake bread with the grains, I'll even stockpile several packs of grains for future baking. The different styles of beer result in very different styles of breads. The grains from a porter vs. the grains from a pale ale make for two very different loaves.

3 cups grains
~5 cups flour (depends on the day)
1.5 cups warm water with yeast and ~1/2 cup brown sugar
couple pinches of salt
~1 tbsp oil

Bake and enjoy!

 

[Mutilated1]

sometimes I let my daughter make dog-cookies out of them, most of the time I dump them out in the bare spots of the lawn and rake them in, it helps the grass fill in the bare spots

 

[Thumper]

Can you share how you make the dog treats... my boxer would love this...

Here is a link for you. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/

 

[Homercidal]

I dumped my first two batches on top of the compost pile, but I am not very good about turning it. I really need to finish that barrel composter I started and put them in there. Supposed to make compost in a couple of weeks max.

But I also promised the dogs that I'd make cookies for them on the next batch too. I tried feeding them to the finches, but they ignored them. The dogs also did not eat them off the compost pile. I must be too efficient!

 

[Echo2112]

I am going to try and make a compost bin of some kind. I am about to have new patio put in the yard, and once it is in I am going to set up a hop garden in containers. Everything I have read says that hops do well with additions of compost, so I figure I can reuse the grains to help the hops that will help make the beer the grains made better.

It's like some happy beered up circle of life!

 

[Mutilated1]

I wanted to do that with mine last year - you know build a compost pile, the thought being that I could make some good compost for growing hops. But I figured out I think its just really far too hot to grow hops in Alabama. Last year I would get up at dawn, and water my hops before I left for work, then water them again when I get home and by the dog days most all of them were dried and dead even though they really took off well in the spring. Just too hot for them to do well here I think.

Anyway, good luck to you with your container hop garden -- I may try the same thing next year. Right now, I'm just trying the one plant that seemed to survive in a different location.

Getting off the subject I know... sorry. Anyway, what you might consider with the spent grains is raking them into the lawn. Any place I have dumped the grains out and raked them in, the grass has grown in thicker and with better roots. I filled in a huge bare spot underneath where we had a pool a couple years ago and the grass on the grain conditioned soil looks like a golf course.

 

[Indy418]

Sometimes I throw them at the neighborhood children. They laugh and play.

Ok... maybe I just throw them away. I'll try that whole making bread thing too now.

 

[Echo2112]

Wow, mutilated, I didn't even think about using them as top dressing for the lawn. I might have to try that myself - I have a spot in the lawn where a turkey frying incident occurred, and it could use some help.

I just read an article in Brew your own magazine about doing a container hop garden, and it was written by a guy that lives just outside of Austin, so I figure if he can grow them here, I could give it a stab and see what happens.

 

[JesseRC]

hmm, I wonder if I let them sour in a bucket, I could take them to the lake and chum with it.

 

[ajwillys]

I sell mine to Anheuser-Busch, they use them to make beer.

 

[Mutilated1]

hmm, I wonder if I let them sour in a bucket, I could take them to the lake and chum with it.

I bet that would work too. I never tried it with spent grains, but I've done the same thing with wheat and seed corn - fish seem to love it even though the smell is horrid.

 

[G-E-R-M-A-N]

I bet you could let them sour and go piggie hunting also.

 

[humann_brewing]

Seattle just started putting out food waste pick up bins. I made some dog treats out of the last batch and the rest now goes into the bin.

I have read this before about the doggy treats. What is the recipe or what are you doing?

 

[humann_brewing]

Currently into the garbage but after I build a compost tumbler....in there

 

[Mutilated1]

I have read this before about the doggy treats. What is the recipe or what are you doing?

someone posted a link to the doggy treat topic a couple pages back

basically you mix em up with peanut butter or meat renderings and an egg to bind it all together and bake cookies

my German sheppard loves them, but I tried feeding them to my sister's cocker spaniel and that stupid dog wouldn't have anything to do with them

pretty much the way I make them nowdays is just turn my daughter loose in the kitchen and let her play dog bakery - she has fun messing and making, the dog loves to eat them

just watch out because they have a lot of fiber and they'll make the dog need to go - lol

 

[humann_brewing]

just watch out because they have a lot of fiber and they'll make the dog need to go - lol

Thanks, I have definitely found out that the dog needs to go afterwards. For the first few all grains I did, I put the grain on the side of the house in the dirt. Well the dog found it of course and well you know the rest. The SMWBO has me put it in the trash now but maybe I will give this a try.

 

[zippyslug31]

I sell mine to Anheuser-Busch, they use them to make beer.

Now that's funny!

 

[humann_brewing]

I sell mine to Anheuser-Busch, they use them to make beer.

I do that with my left over rice actually.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Really? I do that with my left over hop matter. I wash it first to make sure there is no beer flavor on it.

 

[sleepystevenson]

Mine goes out by the woods for the deer, squirrels, etc.

I would like to build a compost area.

 

[LibertyBrewer]

I feed mine to the horses.

 

[johntangus]

We made doggie treats. Spent grains, flour, 2 eggs and 1 cup of peanut butter. Smeared across bottom of greased cookie sheet. Cooked at 350 for 30 mins and then turned oven down to 250 and baked for 2 more hours to dry out. The doggies loved them. didn't notice more poo than usual, but i didn't really pay very close attention. Threw some out in the front yard for the birdies, too.