Backslide
Well-Known Member
I feed mine to our 4 chickens. Before the chickens I would compost it.
Do it, you may get delicious eggs in return! My ladies (chickens) will kill for spent grains as it's there favorite food.Most of mine go into the compost, but I freeze about a third of the grains in tupperware so I can bake with it.
My neighbor has a few chickens so I might ask him one day if he wants some.
Do you have any issues with the barley husks in the grain? The few time I've tried spent grain bread, it was like some one place little needles in my mouth.
My chickens love them.Most of mine go into the compost, but I freeze about a third of the grains in tupperware so I can bake with it.
My neighbor has a few chickens so I might ask him one day if he wants some.
Use in bread, about 50/50 fresh wet spent grain / white bread flour. Plus plenty of baker's yeast. I rarely measure any of it, just go by feel and looks. It becomes a mixable/pourable dough, but way too sticky for hand kneading. It holds shape when proofing in baking tins, then into a 450-500F degree convection oven.
I keep hearing about people putting the grains out and birds and animals eating them. It has never happened in my 7 3/4 years of brewing. Maybe worms. I once saw a bird land on the pile, look around a bit then scurry away about 3 feet and dig in the leaf litter. I never even saw any animal prints. I live in suburbs though so no deer etc.
Compost, Give to an animal farm, bake with them (but this will only use a very little)
I hope that people feeding them to animals don't use this as the bulk of the diet. Most of the feed value has been turned into beer..........
I wonder if it depends on your brewhouse efficiency for animals to eat them? Less sugar left behind must make them a less viable food source for critters.
I do add salt of course, and sometimes olive oil, say 1/8 cup or a little more per large loaf.OK. Color me intrigued. Do you add anything (fat, salt) other than flour and yeast?
I found a recipe online for dog treats. Two cups of spent grains, 1/2 cup peanut butter, cup or so of flour and one egg. I ended up needed a bit more flour than the recipe called for...but the three dogs I've treated with them absolutely love them. 30 minutes at 350, then 2 hours at 200 and they are nice and dry/crispy.
There is a brewery near me that makes pizza dough from spent grains. Pretty good pizza
I do add salt of course, and sometimes olive oil, say 1/8 cup or a little more per large loaf.
My favorites are when I add an oil steeped herb mix to some of the dough, with or without garlic, and bake them as flat breads.
I guess crunchy peanut butter would work well too, but it's really great spread on top.
Moon ridge breweryWhich one?
I tried making dog biscuits. The dog was ok with them, but they used such little spent grain that it just wasn't worth my time and effort in trying to reduce how much grain I was throwing out.
Literally is one of my least favorite parts of brewing, trying to get a 10 gallon batch of hot/wet grains into some kind of container to get rid of in the trash. I live on a small property (50x125) in a normal suburb community. I'd like to just rake it into my lawn, but worry about the smell in my tiny backyard. Composting would be great, but I don't have enough browns to mix it with. In the summer I need to try and plan brew days around our garbage days because I don't want all that nasty sitting in my garbage can for 4-5 days in the 90+ degree days.
I hear ya, a pound of dried and ground up spent grain isn't making a dent of any size in the heap of spent grain after a brewing session. I use perhaps 6-8 pounds of wet spent grain when I bake, and I don't always do it.For those of you making bread with the spent grains. What do you do with the rest of the grains? I use very little in my bread compared to the amount of spent grain in a brew.
I couldn't eat enough bread to use all my spent grain.
I'm going to try that recipe.I found a recipe online for dog treats. Two cups of spent grains, 1/2 cup peanut butter, cup or so of flour and one egg. I ended up needed a bit more flour than the recipe called for...but the three dogs I've treated with them absolutely love them. 30 minutes at 350, then 2 hours at 200 and they are nice and dry/crispy.
Interestingly, when I dump the spent grains in my garden the birds and animals (squirrels) leave it alone. Worms, however, love it.
If you don't have a way to get rid of the spent grains, post it on the Craigslist free section. You'll get people interested. If you live in the city, you'll find urban chicken hobbyists who will gladly come by to get it.
/CSB: I posted there once, mentioning that the grain would be perfect for chicken feed. I got an angry response from some woman ranting about how alcohol is toxic to birds, etc., etc. I'm guessing she was asleep the day they taught biology in her school, so I sent her a link to a site describing how fermentation works.
I'm going to try that recipe.
Our new dog (a Sheltie) likes about everything food, so he may like these too. Our previous dog didn't care for them, neither did he for other spent grain biscuits, sold by some craft breweries. But he loved eating the spent grain balls I had hurled into the yard. It's all about finding chotskies. Dogs!
Oh, so sorry, those are rough times! I'm sure she had a good life being with you, getting homemade treats and all. They're such amazing loyal creatures, holding a special place in our hearts forever.a 15 year old Lab/Shepherd mix we actually had to put to sleep today
Did you grind them up before using? I dry them out and use an old blender to turn spent grains into "flour." Store in Mason jars labeled with corresponding beer style. Then add 1 TBS per serving to pancake or waffle mix and oatmeal. Substitute 1/4 of each cup of flour when baking bread, pizza, or cookies.I add half the liquid for the bread recipe to the spent grain and pulverize it in the blender. There are no sharp husks. It tastes and feels like whole grain bread.
Chickens are really the best composters anyways. Dogs may be man's best friends but chickens are way more useful.I feed mine to our 4 chickens. Before the chickens I would compost it.
Chickens are really the best composters anyways. Dogs may be man's best friends but chickens are way more useful.
Enter your email address to join: