Spent grain disposal - what do you do with it?

[Jef]

I’ve a friend waiting on my next brew to use the spent grain as a medium to try and grow mushrooms. Too early to know how that’ll work out, but I like the idea

[Northern Brewer]

During lockdown I've been playing around with spent grains in bread as a way to "stretch" flour supplies. Certainly 20% is fine (in fact quite tasty), I'm trying to tweak things to increase the percentages. I dug out the bread machine to try and introduce some consistency and found that if you put spent grains in the fridge then they tend to stay wet, and that can screw up the mixing in the bread machine, whereas earlier batches where I'd left it on the side (because there wasn't room in the fridge) and had dried out more, mixed fine.

There's also recipes kicking around t'interwebs for spent grain flapjacks and pizza dough...

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I used to give it to the chickens. It's surprising how much 4 of them could deal with! Even after mashing it's probably a bit like giving a child a packet of Maltesers. Now i simply chuck it on the compost heap.

Did you stop giving it to the chickens, or just put them on a small ration? I have heard that a diet of spent grain can weaken egg shells.

[MikeG]

I put it in the compost bin. Every time I brew the level in the compost bin is the same as it was before the last time I brewed. I think I have a rat living in the compost bin! ...living in the lap of luxury.

[Muscleguy]

I intend to offer it on Freegle to anyone who has animals they can feed it to. Other than that in the compost bin. I can't see a rat getting in there, a mouse might but they've been going down of late judging by the lack of them in my traps compared to previous years.

[Muscleguy]

[quote=Jef post_id=851213 time=1591569444 user_id=21114]
I’ve a friend waiting on my next brew to use the spent grain as a medium to try and grow mushrooms. Too early to know how that’ll work out, but I like the idea
[/quote]

Well they often use barley straw to grow shrooms on so the grains might work as well. Need something like straw in there as well I would think. But sounds like a good idea to me. Be interesting to see if different grains flavour the shrooms differently. A stout brew vs a weissbier for eg.

[FUBAR]

Always used to dump it in the wheelie bin , but since lock down have found someone who keeps a few chickens locally via facebook . So now when I brew ( once or twice a week ) they all go into a bucket and left out for safe distance collection with a dozen eggs left in return . Certainly have noticed the eggs getting tastier and better looking over the weeks since , and apparently the hens love the spent grains and it is now their only diet .

[LeeH]

I used to give it to the chickens. It's surprising how much 4 of them could deal with! Even after mashing it's probably a bit like giving a child a packet of Maltesers. Now i simply chuck it on the compost heap.

Did you stop giving it to the chickens, or just put them on a small ration? I have heard that a diet of spent grain can weaken egg shells.

If exclusively fed yes, they should only have an egg cup full a day. Layers pellets contain almost all the nutrition they require, grain does not.


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[JamesF]

My spent grain also goes to our chickens. I just leave a bucket with the spent grain in by the runs and chuck a small panful into each run each morning until it's gone. Then it goes on the compost heap after the chickens have, err, "processed" it. Spent hops go straight to the compost. I have read that it's possible to do a second mash with spent grain and have been meaning to try it for some time, but never got that far.

Plenty of room in our compost bins though:



That's one of three, about 2m square by 1.2m high. The biggest problem is getting enough stuff to compost. I've just had six tonnes delivered by the people who process the council's green waste, to sit there until the veggie plot is cleared at the tail end of the year.

James

[Binkie Huckaback]

I've used a number of disposal methods over the years:

1. Burying it on the allotment. This seemed to work fine.
2. Overheard a bloke in a Wetherspoons saying he kept chickens and gave him my number. He didn't get back to me.
3. In the general waste bin. Brew day always seemed to be the day after bin day. Especially if there was a bank holiday on the horizon, resulting in smelly bins and flies.
4. Taking it to the council tip and putting it in the 'non-recyclable' section. Always felt guilty because I wasn't sure if I should be putting it in the garden waste section, but not wanting to ask. Guilt only assuaged by knowing it was not like putting plastic in the garden waste section.
5. Putting it on Freecycle when I lived in North London. No-one wanted it.
6. Gave some to friends to make bread, but they misunderstood and used a whole takeaway container full in a loaf of bread. It turned out like the dwarf bread in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. They never asked for more. It's OK if you use about 100ml per loaf of bread but you do have to watch your teeth.
7. Gave it to a fellow allotment holder for his chickens. H e gave me eggs, but also offered me tobacco plants in return, but had to refuse the plants as I'd given up smoking. This made me very sad and left me questioning why I hadn't thought of growing my own when I was smoking.
8. Started putting some of it in our Hot Bin composter into which apparently it is OK even meat scraps. It loves spent grain, trub and spent hops
9. Girlfriend bought some chickens and now gets a bit antsy if I don't brew every couple of weeks as the chickens hassle her if she doesn't have treats for them. We freeze as much as we can.

The upshot is:

1. Buy a spade and rent an allotment.
2. Don't talk to strangers in Wetherspoons. It's a waste of time.
3. Schedule your brew day around bin day.
4.Give precisely zero f*cks when taking spent grain to the tip.
5. Give Freecycle a go. I got a fantastic garden shredder last week.
6. Find bread-making friends who listen to what you tell them.
7. Find someone locally who keeps chickens/pigs/goats etc. You might get something in return.
8. Buy a Hot Bin composter
9. Find someone with whom to share your life who keeps chickens/goats/pigs/whatever.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I've used a number of disposal methods over the years:

Great answer!

I think composting has always worked well for me, assuming you have setup a compost heap already that is already going along well.

I wouldnt recommend *starting* a compost heap with spend grain, for much the same reason that I wouldnt leave a pile of spent grain in the corner of your garden. But I think if the mass of grain being added to the compost is less than half of the existing mass of compost you should be ok.

[Binkie Huckaback]

Great answer!

I wouldnt recommend *starting* a compost heap with spend grain, for much the same reason that I wouldnt leave a pile of spent grain in the corner of your garden. But I think if the mass of grain being added to the compost is less than half of the existing mass of compost you should be ok.

Indeed. Our Hot Bin (brand of compost bin made of very thick polystyrene with a hinged lid) gets well over 40c in the summer and I've never put much in at a time. I'm a bit nervous of leaving it scattered in the garden as being very near some marshland, there are a fair few rats around.

I've yet to get to grips with a 'proper'' compost heap, but as far as I know it's a bit of a dark art and requires a fine balance of various materials. If you want to make compost quickly, I think the 'tumbler' type are pretty good and maybe don't need as good a balance of material.

[JamesF]

I've yet to get to grips with a 'proper'' compost heap, but as far as I know it's a bit of a dark art and requires a fine balance of various materials.

I'm not sure it's really a dark art, but you do need a reasonable balance of "green" and "brown" material (about 2:1 I believe). I generally think of "green" as leafy stuff and "brown" as tough stalks and woody stuff, but colours can be misleading to follow. Spent coffee grounds are apparently "green" for example.

One problem is perhaps that people tend to have far more green material than brown, lawn clippings being an obvious favourite. I mix them with plain(-ish) cardboard (stripped of packing tape) from "online retailers" that I save for the purpose. Unfortunately they do insist on me actually buying stuff before they'll deliver it. Waste paper seems to work just as well, especially if it is shredded. I just try to stick to things that aren't heavily printed with lots of coloured inks.

Large heaps tend to work better too I think, but relatively few people have the space.

I like the idea of a small enclosed hot compost bin though. I don't like any organic waste leaving the property, but neither am I keen to put cooked food on an open compost heap. I might have to do some research on that.

James

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

i did composting specifically to dispose of spent grains and other brewing organic waste to avoid point 3 that @binkie mentions above.

green/brown waste (in composing jargon) balance is an issue and people will mostly have an overabundance of green waste. Ratio is typically 30 brown for 1 green and most people will have loads of green (lawn clippings).

But spent grain is most definitely brown composting material.

Demistifying the jargon: 'green' composting material is nutrient material: protein/nitrogen. 'brown' material is carbon/energy. spent grain has loads of energy left in it (unless your efficiency is huge).

[orlando]

Composting grains = Setting more traps. Still do it as it helps to make great compost. Just accept you will see "mysterious" holes appearing in it.