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What do you do with your spent grain?

H

harebare

I always know when my friend and mentor down at the brew pub has brewed. There are 5 or more mini-dumpsters of spent grain in the alley waiting for the horse breeder to show up. He buys it to feed his horses. Claims they like it better than any feed.

I've been putting mine around the shrubs in the back yard. It seems to make a really stable mulch. I turned some of it over today and found it full of either mold or fungus. It made me wonder if it was decent growing media for mushrooms. (I'm picturing some lump blue crab and fresh morels sauteed in butter and served with a spicy strong pale ale...)

Anyway, back to reality...

Q: What do you do with your spent grain?

Add it to you breakfast cereal? Sell it to the smoothie bar as fiber additive? Feed it to the cat?

Enquiring minds want to know.

- Hare
 
For now I pitch it in the trash. But we are moving (Hopefully soon) and then I can pitch into a mulch pile and get some use out of it. Although I have no idea what the outcome would be because of the acidity. I have noticed that the lawn does not like the acidity so I make sure that when I'm cleaning I rinse well so the acidity is diluted and it does not kill my grass.

Cheers

Preston
 
I tried dumping it in a remote spot in the yard, but it ended up with an awful smell by the next morning.  You could smell it from ten feet away.  Now, I just trash it.  So much for my attempt to be eco-friendly...
 
brewing-in-chandler said:
I tried dumping it in a remote spot in the yard, but it ended up with an awful smell by the next morning.  You could smell it from ten feet away.  Now, I just trash it.  So much for my attempt to be eco-friendly...
Click to expand...

What kind of smell? I've tasted it and mine it totally devoid of any flavor other than barley (wheat, rye) hull. Tastes like the awful breakfast cereal you get at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. Took weeks for some mold or fungus to develop on the ground. I'm thinking it's pure fiber.

- Hare
 
Wastegate said:
I have noticed that the lawn does not like the acidity so I make sure that when I'm cleaning I rinse well so the acidity is diluted and it does not kill my grass.
Click to expand...

Acid? I would think with all the tanins it would be alkaline. So I should mulch my evergreens with it?

- Hare
 
harebare said:
Acid? I would think with all the tanins it would be alkaline. So I should mulch my evergreens with it?
Click to expand...
I start off with water that is about a 7 and end up (depending on the grain bill) with anywhere from a 4.8 (stout) to a 5.8 (Light beer). That is before I started using 5.2ph that is. Now I don't check it anymore.
 
It  had a very sour smell.  The dog was fascinated by it.
 
Mine goes under a couple of apple trees in the yard. After it composts, it's going on my hop beds. Usually there isn't much left in my grain, and the mice don't even mess with it much.  ;D

Brew on,
jeff
 
I dump it in the garden, our native hens make short work of it,  they love the stuff.
 
I add it to the compost pile...just break it up and mix it up a little or it forms a hard dry layer. 
 
After a couple of days in the sun mine smells like it could kill a brown dog!  I dump it down the end of the garden, the kangaroos and wallabbies seem to enjoy it.  If you go down there at night there's half a dozen of em feasting on it!
 
My first all-grain batch I was very lazy with clean-up and let them sit, closed, in the cooler, for two days before I tried to clean it up.

Holy hell, the stench was terrible.  Not the worst thing I've ever smelled, but fairly high up the list.

I just trash it, but I always try to brew on Saturday or Sunday, since Monday is garbage day and I don't want it stewing in the black trash cans for more than a day or two...
 
I dump it in the back yard.  The chipmunks found it quite interesting for a while, as did the mold. 

Then I started mashing-out and raising my efficiency to over 80% (pushing 90% sometimes) and the stuff that would eat it or grow on it found that it was much less interesting.
 
I use some to make beer bread:

http://schmidling.com/appnotes.htm

And the rest go to the deer on my property.

- GL63
 
I give some to the chickens, which will eat just about anything, and then I eat their eggs.  The rest goes into the compost pile.

Prost.
 
+1 Compost.  With ZERO sceintific research done, I think between kitchen veggie scraps, spent grain and hops, I get some good breakdown out there.
 
I've started to have problems, too.  I used to stick it in the yard and have the same stench as everyone does.  The SWMBO says NO.  I tried to dump it into a yard bag to throw away, but even with a paper bag, it's so heavy and still so hot (after one day!) that the bag starts ripping.  It's also weighing down my dump bin a lot.  I figure my 12G batch had at least 40+ lbs (wet) of grains.  this last Friday they didn't take my trash (and gave no explanation).  So I had to shovel it out and now I'm sticking it in the "green" trashcan for grass clippings et. al.  I hope they take it.....
 
I called up the city to find out the rules.

They want my grain to be dry.  Hmmmmmmmmm.

It stinks to high hell and maintains it heat and moisture so well; I'm not sure how to dry it out without it stinking.  Any suggestions?  Really, the SWMBO hates the smell and we can only put it in our front yard (the dog has the back yard and would eat ALL of it) AND we get lots of weekly visitors because our house is the drop point for organic vegetables.  So I don't want 30 other people smelling the reek....
 
I guess I have been lucky with my composter and mixing it in with grass and leaves.

I would probably put it in with garbage in your case, since you are in a city and they are giving you static.

Our system is a pay for waste and recycle for free one.  The thought of spending money on bags and stickers for grass and leaves turned me off so I went tree huger and made a 6X4X4 Composter.  It is actually out of repurposed wood from a fence.

OK-No i'm not THAT GUY that tries to out-green everyone.

Honestly, I have a corner lot and I think i saved $150 last year.  That is at least 20 gallons of homebrew  ;D
 
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