# Used grain



## Bonenose (13/3/17)

Hi,
Possibly a bit of a random question but has anyone fed the used grain from brewing to chooks or anything like that?


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## mtb (13/3/17)

I give my spent grain to a mate for his chickens, he says they go apesh*t over them. Googling will give you more info on the topic - and I'm sure a fair few thrifty brewers here do the same


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## n87 (13/3/17)

I wish i had something to do with it.
Sofar i have offered it to next door for their rabbits... but they dont like it
and put a handful on the chilli plant... but a handful out of 10kg dry is bugger all... the rest goes in the bin


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## mtb (13/3/17)

I hear you can use them to make dog biscuits too


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## n87 (13/3/17)

My dog does go round cleaning up after i have measured and milled my grain.

Just make sure you haven't mash hopped. Hops are extremely toxic to dogs


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## Batz (13/3/17)

All my spent grain goes to the chooks, my mate had goats and they loved it as well. I know some micros give it to farmers to feed cattle.


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## Bonenose (13/3/17)

Wow did not know about hops best keep that in mind


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## n87 (13/3/17)

Bonenose said:


> Wow did not know about hops best keep that in mind


yup, a few articles on it over the interwebs.

I used to tip the kettle dregs out on the lawn (that crappy corner everyone has) until the first 2 brews after we got a pup, he was sick for about a week after each brew day.
These were light hopped beers, most hops go in the cube, and using a hop sock, so there would be sfa hop matter in the dregs. not to mention they were watered down by the rest of the cleaning water dumped on top of it.
Maybe a coincidence, but now the first rinse, and sometimes the second straight into the laundry sink. I dont think I could put myself through testing the theory again.

He hasnt had a problem since... except that day he ate about 1kg of corned beef (5.5kg dog)...


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## Danscraftbeer (13/3/17)

Chooks and cows will go nuts for it. Pretty sure Horses would go it too. I've heard how brewers trailer it onto farms and the cows chasing it with frothing mouths and try to climb into the trailer for the stuff hah.
I toss it over the lawn and into garden beds. Its just more compostables with malt sugar which is like a catalyst for compost chemistry like worms and microbial activity but you cant cake it too thick. It needs to be spread thin or mixed well with soil. It goes sour real quick if caked too thick and gets some fuzzy mould.

It must be done on brew day though. Left in a bucket until the next day or so its putrid. Like a mate of mine found out when he was lazy to act quick and a 2 day old bucket tipped over in the boot of his car... :lol: :icon_vomit:


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## Bonenose (13/3/17)

Got a mate gets a pig now and then, was thinking they may go alright fed up on some grain. Normally try and get them during mango season and feed them full of mangoes. Liking the idea of grain fed pig.


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## JDW81 (13/3/17)

Mine goes into the compost bin, with a a little bit onto the lawn for the dogs to clean up.


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## lost at sea (13/3/17)

I made dog bikkies using a recipe online, cattle dog loves em, only use 2 cups if grain though so still heaps left


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## niftinev (13/3/17)

Have to starve my chooks to get them to eat it, so don't bother just throw in the compost and only a cup or two to the girls (chooks)

i tink my girls are too well looked after


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## Phoney (13/3/17)

When I had chooks (2) I'd give them about an ice cream container load and the rest went in the bin. They wouldn't eat more than that and leaving it around or in the compost attracts rats. Also it stinks like hell after a day or two.


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## timmi9191 (13/3/17)

It's great in garden but it's like a magnetic for fruit flies.

Byo did an article on cooking with spent grain.

A brewer from malt shovel told me they shipped there's to a pig farmer


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## Coxy (13/3/17)

My wife uses a small amount in her sourdough baking (her choice of fermentation hobbies). It goes fantastic in bread. We throw the rest in for composting. It actually goes pretty well for compost. You can throw it in wet as "green matter" and it will stink a fair bit as it breaks down, or dry it out and add as "brown matter", which is the far less stinky option.


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## Bribie G (14/3/17)

Lion are now directing a lot of their spent grains (Adelaide, Brisbane) to moo farmers who supply Lion-owned dairy companies. 

I expect there aren't too many dairy farms near Lidcombe, at present.

Mate of mine on Bribie Island said that too much barley can give the chooks sticky cloacas. I didn't press him for more details. (goats, now that's another story .... gooaaattss...)


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## Mardoo (14/3/17)

Bonenose said:


> Got a mate gets a pig now and then, was thinking they may go alright fed up on some grain. Normally try and get them during mango season and feed them full of mangoes. Liking the idea of grain fed pig.


Best pork I've ever had was finished on spent grain from brewing. Pasture-raised veal too. Unreal.


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## Bribie G (14/3/17)

Didn't the buttocks get a bit messy from the grain bed?


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## TimT (14/3/17)

Chooks. They love it! And then they are mildly enthusiastic about it. And then they're all, like, "what is this shit, I've been eating this for half an hour already, give us the good stuff!" 

And I give the rest to our worm farm.


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## Gigantorus (14/3/17)

Tend to throw it in the compost bin. Breaks down nicely with all the other veg matter.


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## Markbeer (14/3/17)

Berley for fishing is an option.


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## S.E (14/3/17)

Gigantorus said:


> Tend to throw it in the compost bin. Breaks down nicely with all the other veg matter.


Stinks like hell just mixed with veg matter, you need loads of carbon rich with it to work well. I have a couple green bins full steaming away at the moment.


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## S.E (14/3/17)

Markbeer said:


> Berley for fishing is an option.


[SIZE=11pt]Have you tried that Mark? I tried freezing a few kilos and used it off Sandon point a couple times. I did catch a few Bream but no more than without the berley so wasn’t convinced. I’m a shit fisherman though so probably didn’t do it right. [/SIZE]


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## Stouter (14/3/17)

I made the mistake of throwing it into the wheely bin days before collection. Went to put in the last kitchen rubbish bin worth before pick up day, and it smelt something akin to bigfoot's dick/a used nappy full of curry takeaway/a turd covered in burnt hair.
Gagging to be truthful.


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## Jack of all biers (14/3/17)

+ 1 for the chook feed (plus the rats that come later) and the rest to the worm farm.


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## tugger (15/3/17)

All The grain and slops from our brewery go to the local ag school. 
They return a suckling pig every now and then as back pay.


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## pcqypcqy (15/3/17)

I've seen people post recipes for bread, biscuits, etc where they've taken up the grain, ground it again, and incorporated in a normal baking method.

Gotta watch those skins though, you'd want to grind them up fine.

Otherwise, chooks tend to love it, the dogs love what I drop, a mate here in Toowoomba gives it to his dad's lambs (that taste pretty good). i think for most animals/compost systems, so long as they're not only eating spent grain all the time, then it's probably ok for most things.


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## Dae Tripper (15/3/17)

Normally I give it to a mate for his chooks but if you ever want to move it put a notice on your local facebook town notice board and it should be gone quickly, I did that before I knew said mate.


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## Markbeer (15/3/17)

Hi Sean

Yes I use it mixed with tuna oil. It worked. Smash some Pillies in too so that its all nice and fishy.

10kg mixed with 4 tins Pilchard cat food is the cheapest Berley can get.

I target salmon, kings, tailor but the fish aren't in the numbers like when I was a kid. 4 in 5 sessions are fishless.

Mark



S.E said:


> Have you tried that Mark? I tried freezing a few kilos and used it off Sandon point a couple times. I did catch a few Bream but no more than without the berley so wasn’t convinced. I’m a shit fisherman though so probably didn’t do it right.


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## Kingy (15/3/17)

I took a pail full of spent grain with my fisherman father in law a few years ago a we caught a few fish, and when he was cleaning them we found some spent grain in there guts. He said hed use it everytime except he goes fishing Saturdays and Sunday mornings and I brew Sunday mornings and I'm not storing that rank grain for a week anywhere near my brewery lol. My chickens do love it to. A full handy pail full for 4 chickens and they devour it. The rest goes into the compost.


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## Rocker1986 (15/3/17)

At the moment I just dump it up in the backyard somewhere and the turkeys that live here seem to eat it reasonably quickly, or at least spread it around all over the ground so it doesn't end up stinking. SWMBO wants a dog at some stage so I imagine some of it will get used for making dog biscuits then.


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## citizensnips (15/3/17)

All of ours from work goes to a cattle farmer. At home I just wing it in the compost and use it down the track for my hops and veggies.

If you don't have livestock or a compost bin I would throw it in your green bin (garden waste). The garbos would probably tell you not to but at the end of the day your better of having them compost it than throwing it in landfill.


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## S.E (15/3/17)

Markbeer said:


> Hi Sean
> 
> Yes I use it mixed with tuna oil. It worked. Smash some Pillies in too so that its all nice and fishy.
> 
> ...


I hadn’t thought about mixing it with fishy stuff that sounds the business. Do you freeze yours or use it fresh?

What I did was freeze it in blocks. I tied a length of string to a short stick and froze it with the stick in the middle of the block so I could use the string to anchor it and it didn’t float off as it defrosted in the water.


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## simplefisherman (15/3/17)

I save a few takeaway containers full and freeze them, throw one in for the chooks from time to time, especially on really hot days. They get all excited just like brew day when they get a big pile dumped in for them. Usually leave it for a day or so ( they spread it around pretty well so it doesn't get too stinky) then scoop it up into the compost.
Need to find a farmer who has some pigs though,that would be sweet.


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## Dorz (15/3/17)

i use 4 cups of it to make dog biscuits and the rest goes to the neighbors chickens... i give her grain she gives me eggs!


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## Dae Tripper (16/3/17)

simplefisherman said:


> I save a few takeaway containers full and freeze them, throw one in for the chooks from time to time, especially on really hot days. They get all excited just like brew day when they get a big pile dumped in for them. Usually leave it for a day or so ( they spread it around pretty well so it doesn't get too stinky) then scoop it up into the compost.
> Need to find a farmer who has some pigs though,that would be sweet.


You will be amazed by how quick some horse/chook/pig nut will pick the stuff up after posting it on your local facebook site. Pig farmers might have side benefits though.


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## Markbeer (17/3/17)

Hi Sean

For Berley it's day after.


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## abyss (17/3/17)

Dae Tripper said:


> You will be amazed by how quick some horse/chook/pig nut will pick the stuff up after posting it on your local facebook site. Pig farmers might have side benefits though.


I'm guessing the Pig farmers would only want Halal free grain.


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## wide eyed and legless (18/3/17)

There is a video of Paul Hollywood using spent grain where he made a loaf of bread and got a double handful of spent grain and encased the bread with it before baking.
Great fo berley, if you like catching carp, use the spent grain as feed and sweet corn or boiled wheat on the hook, all seeds are good but the best is Hemp seed, (low THC) full of the good oils fish are after.
On the garden the worms will be after that sugar, the reason dogs like it is the energy they get out of it, always put a bit of wort in a bowl for the dog.


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## manticle (18/3/17)

Hop free wort presumably?

When I lived next door to a bloke with chickens and my garden was mostly concrete, I left it on his front doorstep. Chooks loved it.

Now it gets dug into my compost which gets everything else (chook bones, prawn shells, veg scraps, plain cardboard, etc).

Cat litter and grass clippings are the only things that don't go in.

Everything gets moved around regularly and whatever is in there (including about 8 billion fat worms) breaks it all down very rapidly.


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## Benn (18/3/17)

Just out of interest, why no grass clippings?


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## wide eyed and legless (18/3/17)

Grass clippings if not spread and layered with dry straw will turn to mush.


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## Benn (18/3/17)

Ah ok, fair enough. I'd been cramming as much grass clippings in the compost as possible. Recently I've resorted to emptying them in "that corner" now I only use the catcher out the front and just mow the backyard with no catcher otherwise I'd have mountains of clippings. I'm getting pissed off just thinking about it.


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## manticle (18/3/17)

Mostly because my lawn is full of weeds


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## Gelding (18/3/17)

chook bones and prawn scraps ?

I'd have thought animal waste might attract vermin of the rodent kind ?


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## manticle (18/3/17)

I know a lot don't recommend it but there's so many good nutrients and the cats reduce the number of potential rodents. Let the rats come and meet feline justice.

I can't bear to waste my own home made blood and bone.


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## Mardoo (18/3/17)

Neighbours don't last long round your parts, do they?


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## manticle (18/3/17)

Neighbours?

Never seen one, constable.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YOtpgz4L5d8


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## Matplat (19/3/17)

What's a good recipe for dog biscuits? We had chooks for a while and they didn't eat the grain I put out for them, so now it all goes in the green bin. If I could divert some to the dog it would be a good thing....


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## cliffo (19/3/17)

I made a batch for my boy yesterday.

4 cups grain
2 cups flour
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs

Mix together, roll out flat and bake at 180° for 30 mins then lower temp to 110° for 2 hours.

Louie goes nuts for them.


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## Mantis (27/3/17)

Some to the chooks, and the rest dug into a spare garden bed, the worms love the stuff as it breaks down


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## Moad (28/3/17)

Put it up on gumtree and someone always gets it for chooks or pigs etc. helps having larger volumes


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## capsicum (31/3/17)

Yeah goes great in bread, but I get much improved results if I dry the grain on an oven tray first to avoid stodginess in the middle of the loaf


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## thylacine (31/3/17)

Google search terms: " anzac biscuits spent grains


eg. past AHB threads re using spent grain


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## GABBA110360 (31/3/17)

straight in the chook pen with mine even with a double day of 20 kilo grain 12 chooks !


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## fdsaasdf (2/4/17)

As others have mentioned the spent grain goes well in bread, sourdough and anzac biscuits - especially if there is plenty of chocolate or caramel malts.

Unfortunately this still leaves me with 20L+ of grain left over after each brew day. My compost usually can't take more than 5L and I'm not going to dump it in the garden as it attracts possums and rats. I've given some pails away to friends with chickens or hobby stock but unable to get a regular arrangement (I'm an opportunistic brewer).

It pains me a little to chuck the grain in the bin... however there are many larger scale breweries who just dump theirs to waste so my personal irritation is tempered when I relax and have a home brew...


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