Just curious....
What alternative uses (besides feeding to livestock) has everyone encountered regarding using spent grain? Post any recipes you may have!
Thanks
I just had a baker stop by and obtain some spent grain from a porter I was brewing to make a "beer bread". He was quite excited about it and wanted other grain combinations when I brewed other beers. He is going to state on his label where he got the grain so at the very least will be a good source of free publicity, as well as a source of free bread. He only took 150 lbs or so but better than going to livestock. Maybe you have a bakery in your area that might be interested in free materials. Check it out.
Somebody out there grows them on spent grain for their pub. They must go through some sort of sterilization procedure for the spent grain, though. I'd hate to smell it if they didn't.
A couple of years ago there were an article in the New Brewer Magazine about spent grain. They also talked about shitake mushrooms and they also talked about using spent grain as a help for earth polutions (gasoline leakage). If you don´t can get an on copy I can fax you that article if you wan´t (if I find it).
A few folks mentioned growing mushrooms on the spent grain. This does work especially if it's autoclaved (you need a BIG autoclave), mixed with hay and seeded with mushroom fungus right.
There was an environmental project 5 or 10 years ago that did this and then used the second hand spent grain to feed to cattle. Apparently, there's something is brewers grains that cattle have a hard time digesting. But after the grain is used for mushrooms, cattle have no problem with the spent grains and it's higher in digestible protein. Pretty cool.
I don't know how hard a time they had digesting it, but we gave our spent grain to a local dairy, and the farmer said that the cows absolutely came running when he'd pull up with the truck...
Somebody out there grows them on spent grain for their pub. They must go through some sort of sterilization procedure for the spent grain, though. I'd hate to smell it if they didn't.
Can't remember who, sorry.
Dave
Doesn't Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland have mushrooms growing in the room by the brewhouse. I thought I saw that when we did the CBC there.
Spent grain makes great livestock feed, although it needs to be supplemented with something higher protein, as well as micronutrients (we use kelp meal). This is a great use, not "just" a use! In addition, it's wonderful for compost. It can also be pasteurized and used as a mushroom-growing bed. All of these have already been suggested, this is just a reinforcement! We use ours primarily for pig feed, using the remainder for compost, which gets used on the hopyards. Compost, by the way, is very much a value-added product!
Beyond spent grain, does anyone have great uses for spent hops/trub and spent yeast? Kettle trub is great fertilizer but the spent yeast seems to kill weeds.
Gunter Pauli at the Zeri Foundation has done a lot of pioneering work on how to get efficient resuse value from spent grains. You can find one of his spent grain case studies on his website here:
Happy baking, mushroom growing and animal feeding.
Fermenting Revolution,
Chris O'Brien
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Spent yeast: I've been working with a local bakery to see if he can use it for his bread. He's had a range of results so far: some with poor rising, some rising very well. Some carrying hop/beer flavors over, some not. Thinking of using the beer brand name on the bread too - a specialty craft baked product.
We're both committed to finding a way to make it work, so that helps keep it moving ahead.
There is a previous thread regarding spent grain under the general discussion area that deals with nutritional values and impact on livestock and such....check it out.
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