What do you do with your spent grains?

[Bigdaddyale]

I put mine in the worm bin- worms love them. PSA -make sure the grain is cooled to room temp.

 

[kevin58]

Feed them to the deer in the woods behind my house.

 

[jschein]

I let the grains cool, dump in a contractor bag, place the bag in a suitable box of the cardboard persuasion, wrap it shut with duct tape and subsequently toss it in the oversized green roll out garbage bin. Works quite well. I bet that's what everyone else is doing, but are too ashamed to admit it.

You lost me after the contractor bag

 

[Transamguy77]

Do you have a local vegetable or CSA farm? I have a local one that has a big compost pile that I used to take mine too.

Depending on my house I dug a big hole and dumped them in, fed them to my chickens, when I had a lot of chickens they would eat 30lbs of grains in an afternoon. Now I just got 5 and in the beginning they didn’t want any parts of them but I just saw this the other day.

 

[day_trippr]

lol! Makes one wonder if chickens can smell

 

[toadie]

I've been giving some thought to using some of it as a substrate to grow mushrooms. Maybe add some coffee grounds to it.

 

[jcav]

I feed the spent grains to my chickens. They love them. I also have been known to compost them as well and use them in the vegetable garden. Both are great ways to utilize the grains after mashing.

John

 

[day_trippr]

I let the grains cool, dump in a contractor bag, place the bag in a suitable box of the cardboard persuasion, wrap it shut with duct tape and subsequently toss it in the oversized green roll out garbage bin. Works quite well. I bet that's what everyone else is doing, but are too ashamed to admit it.

This is called "projection".

Cheers!

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Unlike every single other person here, I don't have a back forty, chickens, neighbors with chickens, goats, neighbors with goats, desire to bake with them, a large compost pile, or knowledge of where the closest hungry pig is. I do, however, live in a suburban neighborhood with trash collection. Included is yard debris pick-up. So I dump grains in there. They will absolutely sour very quick let. The hotter the quicker so I keep the bin at the side of the house and hold breath if I need to open or move the thing.

 

[OTTB]

We make dog biscuits with them and the rest go to the chickens.

 

[mongoose33]

I give my spent grain to a friend who has chickens. She says the chickens love it. Of course, she wants to give me back something in exchange, but I told her to just donate to a food bank instead.

Early on I dumped them in the garden where they just lay and did nothing. I thought something would come by and consume them, but no. Same with when i dumped them in the woods behind the house.

Composting or dog biscuits seems like the best use if you can't find someone with chickens....

 

[kh54s10]

I used to have a large compost pile. Birds and animals never went near the pile of grain. I have spread it out thinly on the lawn, trashed and made bread with a very tiny amount of what I have produced.

Those making bread and dog treats, what percentage did you use and what did you do with the rest?

 

[catalanotte]

Find friends with chickens or see if a local brewery will let you add them to their cart before a farmer picks up. I get a fresh supply of eggs from a friend in return for my grains.

While the bread and dog treats sound interesting, I cant imagine working through a bag of 40 lbs of wet grain 2-4 cups at a time.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I used to have a large compost pile. Birds and animals never went near the pile of grain. I have spread it out thinly on the lawn, trashed and made bread with a very tiny amount of what I have produced.

Those making bread and dog treats, what percentage did you use and what did you do with the rest?

See post 14 for recipe

 

[Brewbuzzard]

i dump mine in my planter bed....must go somewhere because i've been dumping 20lbs a week for 7 years, and it's still not full....i know i get huge (don't know they're called when as big as your thumb)....they must like it....

edit: grubs was what i was trying to think of....

Grubs are bad for your flower bed and yard. They mature into those brown bugs that pester you at night. They are also known as June bugs down south. The only thing they're good for is fish bate. As for my spent grains I toss them out in the large easement behind the house and let the return to nature.

 

[bracconiere]

Grubs are bad for your flower bed and yard. They mature into
Those brown bugs that pester you at night. They are also known as June bugs down south. The only thing they're good for is fishing bate.

my hope of the spent grains being good for my tobacco plants didn't work out either....but it would have been cool if it was!

 

[Brewbuzzard]

my hope of the spent grains being good for my tobacco plants didn't work out either....but it would have been cool if it was!

What do you do with the tobacco leaves, roll cigars? I love cigars?

 

[bracconiere]

What do you do with the tobacco leaves, roll cigars? I love cigars?

well i didn't have luck getting my starts this year...but usually i roll some cigars, shred the rest for cigarettes....i got, one year, 3 months of blissful independent cigarette smoking! was great....i also grind into dry snuff for sniffing....still got about a years worth of it left, but i have trouble giving up the cig's for dry snuff, can't snort enough.....


edit: i like chewing the green leaves too, tastes better then cured chew.....at least to me....

 

[kh54s10]

See post 14 for recipe

I wasn't asking for percentages in a recipe. I was asking how much people use for bread and dog treats etc. out of a batch of spent grain. I dried almost half of one batch. That would be enough for 8-10 loaves of bread. What do you do with the rest???

 

[bracconiere]

What do you do with the rest???

just had a wild thought....start an escargot farm? do they eat it?

 

[SirHC_]

Food process 1-1.5 c with the milk for my favorite pancake or waffle recipe. Tastes very similar to IHOP harvest grain and nut pancakes, my favorite. The waffle version is similar to the Kodiak power waffles my kids love, though the price tag is steep...
Or I just let them cool and rake into the grass. The dont stink at all as long as I rake them in well. I suspect the worms like them.
Even works in a suburban neighborhood! I just hate sending them to the landfill. If we had yearround free yardwaste pickup,that would be my choice. we only get it spring and fall.

 

[Knightshade]

Unlike every single other person here, I don't have a back forty, chickens, neighbors with chickens, goats, neighbors with goats, desire to bake with them, a large compost pile, or knowledge of where the closest hungry pig is. I do, however, live in a suburban neighborhood with trash collection. Included is yard debris pick-up. So I dump grains in there. They will absolutely sour very quick let. The hotter the quicker so I keep the bin at the side of the house and hold breath if I need to open or move the thing.

Same, with not having a back forty, suburban neighborhood with weekly trash collection. My lot is 1/8 acre, which is not that big. Just trying to not contribute more to the landfill if I don't have to.

 

[HomebodyBrews]

1. Make spent grain "flour": get a rimmed baking sheet (or 3) and spread 4 cups of spent grain on each sheet, this should get you about 1/4" deep which is usually half the depth of a standard rimmed baking sheet. Put them in the oven on the lowest setting you can get your oven to stay at (mine is 190ºF) and after two or three hours gently turn the grains over without spilling them all over the oven. Then leave them drying out with the oven on overnight. In the morning they should be crispy, kind of like an annoyingly healthy cereal. Throw them in a food processor and blitz them until they are a fine powder. This can be used to replace up to 15% of your standard flour. Because they've had most of the starches removed, doing so increases the fiber and protein content in whatever you're baking. I've heard numbers as high as a 50% increase in fiber and protein. I have made a sourdough starter which is far more robust than the one I had made from whole wheat flour, and I use it in breads and pizza dough.
2. Dog treats: 4 cups wet brewing grain, 4 cups AP flour, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 overripe banana, 2 eggs. Mix until it forms a paste. Grease a rimmed baking sheet with bacon grease (butter, oil of some sort, but dogs will not hate you if you use bacon grease) then spread the mixture evenly over the baking sheet. Precut your dog treats, bake for 2 hours at 350º, then lower the temperature to its lowest setting and let dry out for 10 hours or until crispy.
3: Compost the rest.

I do the dog treats minus bacon grease (which I have plenty of) and banana. Definitely gonna try this recipe..maybe flour too. Thanks!!

 

[smata67]

You lost me after the contractor bag

Contractor bags get a lot of use around these parts...

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Put in garden. Use around hops.

 

[bricobrewer]

I put them on the compost heap. It seems to compost well and certainly improves the smell!

 

[matt_m]

I've given a couple buckets to a friend with chickens. I usually have them late Sunday mornings and he has a job where he doesn't get many Sunday mornings off though so most ends up in compost from spring through fall. Like someone else said they sour pretty quick. Winter they go in the trash since the compost bins are usually too frozen.

Probably going to have to stop composting though as I have 2 large bins behind our shed and they just finished a new house on the vacant lot that was behind us for the last 6 years. I'm sure its only a matter of time before the new neighbors complain.

 

[balrog]

Compost bin
Must stir
Must add "brown" as the spent grains are "green" in compost terms and you want a balance (leaves are "brown")

As long as you stir, they compost just fine.

A good rule of thumb here is to use a 2:1 ratio of green matter to brown matter. Too much green waste — especially where wet grain is concerned — will likely create a very ripe spoiling mess. If this is of concern or you find the smell too strong add more brown matter.Oct 28, 2015

 

[doogie]

How about a variation of smata67's procedure.

I let the grains cool, dump in a contractor bag, place the bag in a suitable box of the cardboard persuasion, wrap it shut with duct packing tape and subsequently toss it in the oversized green roll out garbage bin. Works quite well. I bet that's what everyone else is doing, but are too ashamed to admit it. place the box on your front porch and wait for porch pirates to dispose of it for you.

 

[balto charlie]

I have a 20 gallon shop vac bottom (top went to appliance heaven years ago) and I dump spent grains in that, roll it into the garage, let it cool overnight, then strap that to a two-wheeler and take it to the chickens.

Usually - even now in the heat of summer - the garage stays cool enough that the grains don't start stinking overnight, but give it another 24 hours and it gets pretty darned rank...

Cheers!

You ride your bike with the spent grains? Or put them on a handtruck and haul them.