what to do with grain after the mash
- Thread starter Tinga
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ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
Compost, dog cookies, baking bread and feeding wildlife are all popular uses with folks on here.
It's also nice to bag it up and put it in the bottom of the garbage bin where it can ferment in the hot summer weather and then the bag springs a leak and the whole garage has a heady, ripe, barfilicious smell. Mmm, mmm, good!
ArkhamAsylum
Active Member
I fertizile the wife's flower garden. She doesn't know it, though.
jfkriege
Well-Known Member
Dog biscuits. Excess goes into the compost pile.
jpsloan
Well-Known Member
You speak from experience, I see? I made this mistake... once. Had a nice outline of a sticky puddle under my garbage can which attracted ants. Now I let the bag of spent grains sit by the back gate until garbage day.
Last summer, I spread my grains out beneath a pine tree by my back fence, thinking straying deer or wildlife might want it. Turns out that it ended up rotting and getting huge plumes of gray-white mold, and smelling generally like death and hell. The wife politely asked me to knock it off.
Got Trub?
Well-Known Member
Chickens love the stuff - mine go nuts when they realize it is brew day 
. Otherwise I second the composting thing.
. Otherwise I second the composting thing.
Unfortunately, I live in a townhouse and there aren't a lot of options. The back fence of my patio does but up against a county park, but, since the ranger's house is right on the other side I'm not sure he'd appreciate me hucking it into his backyard!
ReverseApacheMaster
Well-Known Member
It goes into compost. I'd be interested in trying to make some bread with it, but I'm not much of a baker.
Mischief_Brewing
Well-Known Member
So for those of you who feed the wildlife with the spent grains, do you do any prepping of the grains? I've dumped mine on the compost/leaf pile I have in the very back of my property but it seems the birds and various small woodland creatures we have don't want anything to do with it...
i would also like to know. i'm thinking i might try to dry them up a bit in the oven?
Egghead
Well-Known Member
My property backs up against a cow pasture, so I just throw the grains over the fence for the cows to eat. They love the crystal and specialty grains, as well as 2-row. They don't seem to like wheat malt as much, though.
samc
Well-Known Member
I just spread it near the hop plants and the birds love it.
COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
Chickens love the stuff - mine go nuts when they realize it is brew day
+1, the chickens turn it into more nitrogen rich components and then I use that in the garden.
eanmcnulty
Well-Known Member
Yes! I have had that too. She hated me for that one.
It was SWMBO who originally brought it to my attention. I laughed at her and told her she was being hypersensitive. To prove my point, I threw open the lid of the trash bin and drew in a big whiff. What the!!?! "See," I told her, straining not to breathe through my nose, "there's...gag...nothing wrong with...ulp...OH MY GOD THIS REEKS!!!"
Never had one go rotten on me yet. I HAVE derusted some auto parts in a mix of molasses and water (this really works. Buy the molasses bulk at a grain elevator) which fermented and smelled like a rotten skunk carcass rolled in cat sht and left in a garbage bag in the sun for 3 days...)
I toss mine on the compost pile. I really should finish the compost barrel which is supposed to speed up the process by like 5-10 times.
I toss mine on the compost pile. I really should finish the compost barrel which is supposed to speed up the process by like 5-10 times.
I've had great success cooking with it. Throw it in a blender with some flour and it can be added to just about any bread recipe. If you want a little more texture, you can skip the food processor and just bake with it. I've also used it in muffins, pizza dough, cookies, even soup.
There is NO wildlife that eats it around me. Deer, possum, squirrels, armadillo don't eat it.
The only thing that eats it is my dog (as dog treats, baked with peanut butter, etc. my daughter does it. search).
The only thing that eats it is my dog (as dog treats, baked with peanut butter, etc. my daughter does it. search).
