What do you do with your spent grains?

[indymedic]

The chickens love brew day too! Every other brewday or so I keep enough to make a couple batches of dog treats.

 

[kh54s10]

I dump them in my compost pile. I have never seen any sign that any animal has eaten any. Not birds, not squirrels, nothing. There are probably worms in the more decayed portions.........

 

[user 62649]

I found a great recipe for dog treats, and my dogs love them. Although I use only about 4 C spent grains from 10-16 pounds. I feed the rest to a local farmers herd, I asked so he doesn't mind!

 

[soccerdad]

I dump them in my compost pile. I have never seen any sign that any animal has eaten any. Not birds, not squirrels, nothing. There are probably worms in the more decayed portions.........

Nuclear winter around your place

 

[rusty_tlc]

Feed for my sons chickens.

 

[kh54s10]

I dump them in my compost pile. I have never seen any sign that any animal has eaten any. Not birds, not squirrels, nothing. There are probably worms in the more decayed portions.........

Nuclear winter around your place

Nope. Been dumping my spent grains in the compost pile for 6 1/2 years. I have never seen any animal of any kind eat them. I haven't even seen any disturbance of them, not even tracks through them. I even put some under my bird feeders once. Not even the squirrels would touch them.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Just curious, do you just have a spot you pile it up or is it in a compost bin? Also, is it mixed with other stuff or just grains.

For me, (with very limited researched to back up my process), I compost in black 60 gallon plastic bin, along with food scraps, some yard scraps, cardboard, sometimes add soil and use a shovel to "stir" it... ill say weekly but more like whatever i get around to it. I am just bored and curious as to how others do it.

Mine was just a pile, and mostly spent grain. The grain pile got up to about 2.5 ft high x 3 ft diameter, with a few food scraps here and there. It wasn't anything elaborate by any means.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

I spread them out very light and evenly because of the smell if they're in a big pile. They're all over my yard/flower beds.

Perhaps that was why my grain smelled; I just piled them up in the woods on the edge of my lawn.

 

[brewprint]

Perhaps that was why my grain smelled; I just piled them up in the woods on the edge of my lawn.

I've made the same mistake before. It's best to just spread them around lightly.

 

[sbartelski]

I dump them in my compost pile. I have never seen any sign that any animal has eaten any. Not birds, not squirrels, nothing. There are probably worms in the more decayed portions.........

I put them in our compost bin. Next morning the grains look alive since the worms in the bin LOVE the grains

Stefan

 

[UncleMalty]

Chickens love them. My wife would freeze a pound or so in the summer and give then give it to them on hot days. They seemed to like pecking away at the frozen clump of grains.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Today sourdough and spent grain pancakes.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I trash them, they spoil almost immediately where I live 80% humidity most days

 

[brewing_clown]

Compost

 

[Temptd2]

I put ads on Freecycle and Craigslist freebies for them. I put them in 1 gallon ziploc baggies and usually have 4 or 5 folks respond that they want them for their chickens; another guy who likes to make no-rise bread with some of it.

I've made bread, I've dried and ground them (which was a big PITA), and we've put plenty into our big open compost pile. We have "scratch birds" (California towhees, thrashers, etc.) that love to scratch in the pile of grains and eat on them. Otherwise the worms get 'em.

 

[Kent88]

@Hoppy2bmerry recipe please?

I trash them, they spoil almost immediately where I live 80% humidity most days

Have an oven safe cake pan or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper ready to go, and have your oven pre-heating to about 200F when you are sparging. When you put the kettle on to boil (or you just don't have any hop additions coming up for 10 or 15 minutes and you are confident you wont get a boil-over) quick scoop out as much spent grain as you might want to save and put it on the parchment lined pan and put it in the oven. Try to gently mix it up every 90 minutes or so to get even drying.

As long as no one else wants the oven for the next few hours you are free to keep them in the oven in an environment that will prevent bacteria spoiling the spent grain. You can deal with the spent grain as your wort chills, after you pitch yeast, after you clean up, or I've even waited until the next morning to let them dry out almost completely.

 

[jtrentpearson]

Some goes to the chickens, some to the compost and if the dogs are being good boys ill make dog treats out of some.

 

[z-bob]

The last couple of batches, I've just broadcast it on the back lawn. It stinks too quickly if I leave it in one place in the summer.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

@Hoppy2bmerry recipe please?

Sure, I use this basic recipe below, but substitute water for the buttermilk (1/2 cup less) as my starter is tangy enough. I add 1/2 cup of moist spent grains to the sponge after it has developed overnight. Depending on the humidity and moisture of the grains you may add a little more flour. For pancakes I reduce the oil/butter by half. Enjoy.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-sourdough-waffles-or-pancakes-recipe

 

[soccerdad]

The chickens get all of ours. Fresh and warm on day one, fridge cooled on day 2 and 3, frozen after day 3.

 

[WolfeTone]

My mom takes the spent grains I give her and blends them with dates and then bakes them like biscuits. Then top them off with Dark Chocolate and allow it to set in the fridge.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Recently did my first AG batch and was unsure what to do with the spent grains. Unfortunately I do not have a dog, chickens, a yard, garden or enough space for a compost pile for my spent grains. However, what I do have is a terrific zoo nearby and the Dietician seemed pleased to take the grains off my hands! My brother is a competitive pumpkin grower so we have taken a few 600+lb gourds to her in the past and watched the Elephants play with and eat them. They seemed happy, which made me happy. I imagine this is what I will do with all my spent grains in the future

 

[dpeters]

Spent Grain German Treberbrot - you may want to add some sugar to get it to rise more because the bread was a little to flat to cut and make sandwiches. It was very good and is a hardy bread.

• 1 cup - Spent Grains
• 1 cup - Bread Flour
• 1 cup - Whole Wheat Flour (Or bread flour)
• 2/3 cup - Warm Water
• 1 teaspoon - Active Dry Yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon - Salt

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients well and kneed for about 10 min. After that let the dough rise until doubled in volume

2. Once risen for the first time, knock the dough down and form a loaf. Let this loaf rise for another 30 min

3. With a sharp knife cut slits into the top and bake for about 40 min at 420°F. For the first 20 min use a spritz bottle to spray water into the oven every 5 minutes. The added humidity will help the crust formation

4. Take it out of the oven and let it cool

 

[Kent88]

@dpeters how much moisture did the loaves retain? I find that the big issue I have adding spent grain to dough is when the final product is going to be dry (like pretzels).

Rather than spritzing the crust, would putting a tray with plenty of hot water on a lower shelf when you turn the oven on accomplish the same thing?

 

[bleme]

I do have is a terrific zoo nearby and the Dietician seemed pleased to take the grains off my hands! My brother is a competitive pumpkin grower so we have taken a few 600+lb gourds to her in the past and watched the Elephants play with and eat them. They seemed happy, which made me happy. I imagine this is what I will do with all my spent grains in the future

You are supposed to feed spent grain to a horse that has foundered so it would make sense that a zoo would be happy to see it.

 

[TomRep]

I give mine to my chickens and ducks. They go ape poop over them.

 

[HomemadeSauce]

I used to make bread or other baked goods with it, but have fallen out of the practice recently. Usually spread it around the garden. There's a family near me raising chickens but I haven't been able to bring any over to them.

 

[HOPME]

Dog treats and local farmers.