What ingredients can be reused? Another newbie question...

[pshankstar]

So I brewed my first recipe from scratch last night (not a kit that was purchased). I was wondering if I could reuse the grains and/or the hops that were used last night to make the wort? I left them in the muslin bag for now and placed them in separate ziplock bags, then placed them in the fridge. I know that if I can reuse them, the grains and hops have lost some potency.

I was curious to know if it can be done, if anyone has done this themselves and what their experience/results were? Or is this something that I shouldn't bother with, empty and clean the muslin bags to start a new brew?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TheMadKing]

The sugar in the grain should have all been converted and put into your wort, so no you can't really use them to make beer again. I've seen recipes for making dog treats out of used grain though, as long as they haven't touched hops (they are toxic to dogs!)

Hops are the same story, all their acids should have come out in the boil. Grain and hops are cheap, better to just toss them and buy new stuff.

Unused ingredients are a different story though! Save those in a cool dry dark place until you need a random few ounces of something for another batch.

 

[pshankstar]

Thanks TheMadKing, that all makes sense! I will dump the grains and hops later today and start cleaning the muslin bags for my next batch! Yes, I noticed when buying the grains and hops they are relatively cheap. So trying to save $$$ isn't an issue there. Thanks for the quick response too!!!

This forum is becoming one of my favorite sites to visit daily!!!! Well hourly, who am I kidding!!!

 

[PlexVector]

So I brewed my first recipe from scratch last night (not a kit that was purchased). I was wondering if I could reuse the grains and/or the hops that were used last night to make the wort? I left them in the muslin bag for now and placed them in separate ziplock bags, then placed them in the fridge. I know that if I can reuse them, the grains and hops have lost some potency.

I was curious to know if it can be done, if anyone has done this themselves and what their experience/results were? Or is this something that I shouldn't bother with, empty and clean the muslin bags to start a new brew?

Thanks in advance!

If you're brewing correctly, then the grains are pretty much spent. Toss them. Or make dog biscuits. There may be a recipe for that here somewhere.

So, What was the predicted Original Gravity (OG) compared to your actual OG?

 

[Takuie]

when i brew my porter, the wife takes all the spent grain and makes all kinds of bread with it. OMG good!

 

[TwistedHops]

when i brew my porter, the wife takes all the spent grain and makes all kinds of bread with it. OMG good!

I agree with this, you can either just use the spent malt directly or you can dry it out in the oven. As long as you didn't use hops in the mash.

I dry mine in the oven over night, then grind it into flour and use it in all recipes, just substitute out half of the regular flour!

I don't remember the recipe off the top of my head but I made an excellent spent barley bread.

 

[TwistedHops]

Oh and it goes great in chocolate chip cookies!

 

[wilserbrewer]

Short answer is no, there is not much left in your spent grain and it should be disposed of.

Long answer is that sometimes when making strong beers, additional wort is created to make a second batch of a smaller beer, this is called partigyle sp???

 

[pshankstar]

Thank you everyone for your quick responses! I may look into making some dog biscuits with the grains since I have two dogs that would truly enjoy them! If anyone has a link to a recipe for some dog biscuits, please share. Thanks again!

 

[chickypad]

Here you go. My girl loves these, she can hardly contain herself when she smells them baking. She is sensitive to wheat so I make sure only to use barley and oat grainbills, and I sub in rice flour.

 

[douglasbarbin]

I have always wondered if it was possible to take used flavor/aroma hops and use them for bittering hops for the next batch. Never tried it, though.

 

[BeatnikTom]

You *can* however, reuse the yeast.

 

[kh54s10]

I have always wondered if it was possible to take used flavor/aroma hops and use them for bittering hops for the next batch. Never tried it, though.

Nope, as already said, most all the hop oils have been extracted. You might get some bittering, very little, and at unpredictable levels. Compost the spent hops.

 

[kh54s10]

You *can* however, reuse the yeast.

As far as I know yeast is the only ingredient that can be used in another beer.

 

[Rhumbline]

And let's not forget using the harvested yeast to make soft pretzels and pizza dough.

 

[Rhumbline]

As far as I know yeast is the only ingredient that can be used in another beer.

There is the parti gyle method that uses the grain from one batch to brew a weaker batch.

I'm planning on trying this out with a RIS. A small investment in yeast, hops, and electricity that may yield a drinkable beer.

 

[kh54s10]

There is the parti gyle method that uses the grain from one batch to brew a weaker batch.

I'm planning on trying this out with a RIS. A small investment in yeast, hops, and electricity that may yield a drinkable beer.

OOPS... Forgot about parti gyle. But that is a method that can only be done from high gravity grainbills. I have tried a couple with limited success - drinkable but weak.

 

[TwistedHops]

If you want to make a stronger beer from the second runnings you can always add extract to up the gravity. Treat it as a pseudo partial mash

 

[MedicMang]

Coming out of left field here. A great way to get rid of grain without feeling bad about just throwing it away is to trade it for eggs. Post an add on Craigslist to see if anyone with chickens wants it for feed. I haven't BOUGHT eggs in a while. Farm fresh and they just come by to get it after the mash.

 

[GHBWNY]

Ditto, ditto, ditto. Don't bother reusing. There's a reason that used ingredients are referred to as "spent".