Spent Grain

[paulcgi]

I know there have been posts here before about what to do with spent grain after a brewing session.
I just figured I'd give my version of what to do with the 10 pounds or so of grain:

invite some friends over and have a party!

http://www.geocities.com/paulsgi/friends1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/paulsgi/friends2.jpg

[Payson]

How cool! Are they frequent visitors??

[paulcgi]

as of late? constantly.. because there was 9 lbs of grain on the ground around the bird feeders.. HUGE flocks of them around my house. at first it was just three of them... called them the 3 caballeros.. but now this small group (is 14 or 15 enough to be called a flock?) has been there everyday at least 2 or 3 times a day.
along with tons of squirrels. My yard is filled with deer prints, but they are only there at night.
the pile of grain is also now gone.
time to brew again

I'll be getting some really fat toikeys around the house.. gonna have to fill the freezer come toikey season

[Payson]

Beautiful! Fun to watch and tasty too!

[paulcgi]

one more for you:
they worked their way from the west side of the house, went around to the east and I got this pic before I got number 2 above when they took off..

http://www.geocities.com/paulsgi/friends3.jpg

[MichaelM]

hehe thats great

[Otis_The_Drunk]

I dump it in my yard, the ants carry it off, and what the ant's don't carry off goes into compost.
If I'm feeding the ants spent grain, they stay away from my house.

Funny story, One time I dumped the spent grain on top of a red ant bed... (16 lbs) they carried it off in two days.
4 days later I poured Gasoline on top of the ant hill and lit it on fire, after the gasoline burned off the hole continued to burn for two hours... My theory is that the grain husks they took down into the hole caught fire and burned out the rest of the hole.

[MrNate]

Originally posted by paulcgi

I'll be getting some really fat toikeys around the house.. gonna have to fill the freezer come toikey season

What, you can't claim them as crop kills?

[newportstorm]

That's great. Hope you bag one of those for dinner soon.

The local brewery here has an arrangement with a local farm who takes all of their spent grain for feed for his pigs and black angus cows. Every year, they roast one of the pigs at the annual brewery luau. And those black angus have won some shows - including one that eventually sold for nearly $250K!

Good beer makes happy cows. ;)

[vw addict]

I'd dump mine for the birds, but we have 2 Labs that are worse than seagulls.

[choreboy]

My border terrier goes crazy for spent grain and will eat it until I chase him away from it. I get a few sparrows and finches, but not much other wild life unless you count rats.

The rats are healthy and fat, but I am not quite sure when rat season begins and ends. I have never tried it, but I hear sewer rat tastes like pumpkin pie.

[paulcgi]

uhhhhmmmm... well you try it and report back to let us know.. k?


there were about 7 deer here today to clean up. I didn't get pics of them until they went around to the east side of the house (same side of house as pic number 3)
most were pretty small.. yearlings.. and a couple big does.
some of em might be in the freezer come fall.
gotta find a beer that goes well with venison

[PCaravan]

That's my kind of hunting... the game comes to your house!


A few months ago I spilled a pound or so of uncrushed malt in the shed. I just swept it out onto the ground outside the shed thinking the birds will eat it... it's still there untouched. I guess the birds in my area aren't that crazy about malt?

Regarding spent hops and spent grain, I've never left very much in the yard, mostly just what spilled or got dropped on the ground while I was bagging it up to put in our trash can. So far, our dog has shown no interest what was there. I may try spreading some of the spent grains into the more bare spots on our yard. Someone around here posted that he did the same thing it the bare spots came up full of green grass. Of course if the dog starts to show interest I'll have to stop.

[MrNate]

Originally posted by paulcgi

gotta find a beer that goes well with venison

Or ON venison... My favorite venison recipe is a loin or shank marinated in beer (BMC) for at least 24 hours, larded with bacon and slow roasted on a spit (or grill, esp. for a shank).

An American brown might go pretty well... Or maybe that's just what I'm hankerin' for right now.

[Chubber]

Originally posted by Otis_The_Drunk
I dump it in my yard, the ants carry it off, and what the ant's don't carry off goes into compost.
If I'm feeding the ants spent grain, they stay away from my house.


The one time I put spent grain into my garden bed it attracted about 5000 roaches. I put it into the ground the day after brewing, and the next day I went out to weed and water there were about 5000 roaches in with the grain and around it. I love Florida!

I may try it again, but with a bed further from the house. I might use it on my hop plants.

[paulcgi]

about every second brew or so, I take about 4 cups of spent grain and use it in bread. (the rest goes to the little forest critters...awwww...ain't they cute?)

anyway. I fill up a cast iron skillet with the grains and put it on low heat on the stove top. Just to start drying the grains and drive most of the moisture out. (makes it easier to calculate the recipe if the grains are semi-dry).

Then make bread with it.. 5 cups flour, 1.5 coups grain, salt & yeast.. comes out like a sourdough.

of course it helps to make great bread if you happen to be an idiot like me and have one of these sittin at your house: http://www.geocities.com/paulsgi/images/west_oven.jpg

[MrNate]

Originally posted by paulcgi

of course it helps to make great bread if you happen to be an idiot like me and have one of these sittin at your house: http://www.geocities.com/paulsgi/images/west_oven.jpg

Wow... You like a slice or two of homade pizza to go with your homade beer, do you?

[takhsh]

I also use some of it to my bread making hobby.
I do not dry it. Instead I fill some plastic bags, seal them and place them into the freezer, and use them as I need them. The majority goes into the garden, and indeed it becomes excellent compost.

[paulcgi]

(homer simpson like) uhhhhhhhhhgggggrrrrr... piiiiiiiiiiiiiizaaaaaa

you've not had pizza until you've had it straight from a wood fired oven like that. I can do 3, 10-12" pizzas in about 3 minutes.
pizza, bread, baked beans.. you name it.. it's been cooked in that thing.

[HogieWan]

I showed that pic of the oven to my wife and she immediately said "NO"

It's funny that a lot you also make bread, It's grain and yeast, too right?

[MrNate]

Did you build it or did it come with the house? I think I may have a new toy to dream about.

[paulcgi]

built it myself.. took about 5 or 6 months. it's huge. and actually can be a pita since it takes so much to get it fired & ready. hearth size is 36x48. (I can do 15 or 16 batard sized loaves at once.)
it works great for just about anything you wanna bake. I start firing it Sunday morn around 8am. ready for bread by about 3 or 3:30.
we can bake meat & beans on Monday and there's still enough heat Tuesday to make cakes & pies.

catch me offline if you want more details.. I have tons of pics & descriptions of the build process

[B_rad1969]

I have about 30lb. of spent grain I have dumped behind the house. It looks like it's all still there. I didn't think anything ate it. All I need is a bird, a deer, and an ant.:D

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I showed that pic of the oven to my wife and she immediately said "NO"

It's funny that a lot you also make bread, It's grain and yeast, too right?

It is funny, we show them a picutre of somehting we think is neat, and they think we just want to build one...

[Mad Scientist]

BTW paul, I'm hunting at your house next season....

[paulcgi]

come on up. more than enough of the road rats around.
not that I would EVER do it, but it would be easy enough to sit in the basement (near the kegerator) and just open a window. perfect view out over my property and just happens to be a perfect view of the acre and a half that I have planted with clover, rye and winter wheat

[takhsh]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I showed that pic of the oven to my wife and she immediately said "NO"

It's funny that a lot you also make bread, It's grain and yeast, too right?

Ops. We all are stupid enough to show pictures like this to our wives. What we should have done?
Build it FIRST, and THEN show to the wife.
How we build it first without her seeing what we build? We simply nake a steatement, that "this is what I have decided to build". Yea, yea, yea. I hear you all, that we like to stay married. On the other hand, we like our freedom as well, when it comes to things like this.

In any way, I had a dream like this, but age has stopped me, before my wife.

Also, I found it very interesting Hogie, that many of us besides beer also make bread. In fact some of our female friends go for the bread (sour dough) more than the beer. This is good, since this way my male friends have more beer to their disposition.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by takhsh
Also, I found it very interesting Hogie, that many of us besides beer also make bread. In fact some of our female friends go for the bread (sour dough) more than the beer. This is good, since this way my male friends have more beer to their disposition.

yep - the lady guests enjoy the bread much more than the beer, but everyone seems to get a kick out of both