What do you do with your spent grain

[beekeeperman]

The bluejays eat it the spent grains off the compost pile here.

 

[tferranti]

I trade it to a local pig farm for bacon. Hamsteaks. Pork chops. Occasionally some ribs

 

[Hamaki]

My chickens love spent grain. The other animals, not so much.

 

[huckbof]

I send it to the U. of Kentucky one and dones, they get taller and go undefeated

 

[wilson42203]

My chickens love it.

 

[razyrsharpe]

i compost for the garden. my brother gives to his chickens.

 

[Ivypunx]

I live next to the woods. I toss it out back and 30 minutes later the deer are all over it

 

[clarkpadgett]

I give them to my father-in-law and he converts them into chicken eggs.

 

[Blue_State]

My chickens love it.

For the chickens, do you throw it on the ground or throw it into their food bowl?

 

[mcartt11]

For those of you that use it for your chickens or give to others that have chickens, do you have to dry it first? I have heard people say that the wet grains will spoil rather quickly. I just want to know how soon I have to get it someone with chickens if I want to swap for eggs.

 

[buercky]

I give it to my chickens. just dump several cups on the ground over a couple days. Let the eggs come! after that

 

[MaxStout]

I once tried to give it away on Craigslist, but no takers. I did get a response from some woman who chastised me that "alcohol can kill chickens." I guess she was at home sick the day they taught science in her school. :cross:

Last year I added some to my box gardens, but the squirrels came and dug it all up.

Now I just toss it in the garbage.

 

[grrickar]

Been dumping mine in a raise flowerbed, to be tilled in later. Odd thing is the birds have not been eating it? I figured they would have a field day with all that grain.

 

[BlkWater_brewer]

Chickens or pygmy goats - when that doesn't finish it off, I have a pile in a corner of my wooded lot and something always shows up to eat it. Live on the bank of a small river in the sticks so there is no shortage of critters.

 

[swmalone]

I give it to the chickens. They go crazy for it.

 

[azazel1024]

Compost pile. My garden loves the stuff. Best part is, no weeds from it like I get from some stuff (though between the grain and general non-meat food scraps, the compost tends to break down just about anything in it over the course of a year. The extra ~150lbs of grain that goes in to my compost does really help bulk it up).

 

[MagicMatt]

Why are y'all throwing away all of that good grain?!?

Provided your grist isn't more than 5-10% dark/roated malts (which can give a bitter and astringent taste), save that stuff! You can make all kinds of delicious things!

After brewing, I let the grain drain and cool for a couple of hours, then pulse it in a food processor for a minute or so (don't over do it), then I measure out 3 cup portions and squeeze as much moisture out as I can (it'll still be wet, but not dripping). Save these in individual bags in the freezer, and when it's time to bake just pull one out, let it thaw and presto, ready to add to your favorite bread/pizza recipe, or use for granola or other fun treats.

Here is one of my favorite spent grain bread recipes. It makes 2 loaves:

3 cups well drained spent grains + 1 cup water
3 cups whole wheat or white wheat flour (12.75 oz by weight)
3.5 cups all-purpose or bread flour (14.88 oz by weight)
1 Tbsp instant dry yeast (see note below)
1 cup water
1/4 cup honey (you can sub sugar here or use a combo of DME and sugar)
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp oil (olive or vegetable)

Combine spent grains and 1 cup water in food processor. Process until grain is broken down well but not a complete puree.

Place in bowl of mixer with yeast, flours, additional water and honey. With dough hook, on lowest speed, blend ingredients together for 4 minutes. Cover bowl and let stand for 15-20 minutes, allowing flour to hydrate.

Sprinkle salt over dough in bowl and mix on level 2 speed for 4 minutes. Add butter and oil. Continue to mix on level 2 speed for another 5 minutes until butter/oil is well incorporated. Dough is fairly moist and can be somewhat sticky.

Scrape dough from bowl onto lightly floured surface and knead by hand just a few minutes until it takes shape, but is still soft and resilient. Resist the temptation to add much extra flour here. If it's too sticky to handle, make sure your hands are either well floured or lightly oiled. Or, use a bench scraper to fold and turn the dough at the beginning, until you can manage the dough by hand. A light hand with the flour will help make a lighter loaf of bread--a good thing because this bread already has so much whole grain in it!

Clean out your mixing bowl and lightly oil it. Gather dough into a ball and place in bowl, flipping it over to make sure top of dough has light film of oil. Cover with clean towel and allow dough to rise at cool room temperature until about doubled in volume. This will take a couple of hours depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

When dough has risen, turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut evenly into 2 pieces. Turn edges of dough under around each piece, deflating dough as you do. Cover lightly with towel, and allow dough to rest about 15 minutes. After dough has rested, shape each piece into round or regular loaf shapes. Allow loaves to rise again until almost doubled. Preheat your oven well ahead of time to 475 degrees.

When ready to bake, slash top of loaves-- a couple of diagonal slashes on a standard loaf, and a tic tac toe or other pattern on a round. If you want a crustier bread, spritz with water before placing in oven. Bake at 475 for 5 minutes, optionally spritzing with water at beginning and end of the 5 minutes. Turn oven down to 425 degrees and bake 20 more minutes. Check the loaves and rotate in oven if necessary for even browning. Bake 5-15 minutes more until loaves are nicely browned and reach an internal temperature of 200 degrees.

Remove baked loaves from oven and allow to cool well before slicing. If bread seems too crusty or you just want a softer crust, loaves can be brushed with olive oil or butter as they cool.

Notes: About the dry yeast-- if you use regular active dry yeast, you can hydrate it in 1/2 cup of the additional 1 cup water before adding to flour mixture. This step is not necessary with the instant yeast.

DME in bread--a couple of tablespoons can be substituted for part of the sugar. It will feed your yeast well and give a moister, slower staling loaf of bread, as well as imparting a bit of sweetness.

You can also do the first rising in the refrigerator. It will take 6-12 hours. Overnight works well for baking the next morning. Cover the top of your mixing bowl tightly with a couple of layers of plastic wrap. This method has the extra advantage of letting you shape your bread with a nice, cool, unsticky dough!

If you don't want to fuss as much with the baking of the bread, you can also bake it for about an hour at 350 degrees. Check it about half way though and rotate if needed. Temperature should still be at 200 degrees at end of baking. Remember that individual ovens vary a lot, so experience with your own oven is important. As with beer, bread is done when it's done and not when the timer may say it is.

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

But I like my eggs........ and it is so easy.

 

[Clarke]

I tell ya what I won't do again, leave in my bucket for a week, smells like death...

 

[GrainToGlass]

Spent grain goes to a pig farmer. Though, pizza dough does sound delicious to try next time. Amarillo hopped tomato sauce anyone?

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

Actually they don't smell too good when the chickens are done with them either....... they smell pretty much the same way chicken s.... smells.