Smoking With Spent Grain

[CONNOR BREWARE]

Has any one tried it?

I'm thinking the grains would need to be dried and that has obvious issues. But surely if it can be made into bread and dog treat it could put into small batches and used for smoking foods.

Anyway just an idea that the search function didn't seem to have any luck with.

Ciro

 

[Deebo]

I am pretty sure I read spent grain as an ingredient on some smoking pellets I was looking at in bunnings once... thought I could be imagining it

 

[manticle]

I think anything combustible that isn't toxic can be used for smoking. However, spent grain is either wet or stinky or both so you'll have to find your way around that.

I've used herbs, wood, onion and garlic peel, tea leaves and even peppercorns. No reason grain wouldn't technically work apart from the moisture content.

 

[jimmy86]

But wouldn't the wet grains just smoulder away and not catch fire.

When I used to make 100's of hams + other smoked products a year I used to soak the wood chips for as long as 24hrs so they wouldn't ignite and cover the product in soot (which it does)

So unless the flavour produced by the grains is undesirable, straight out of the Mash Tun to drip excess water and smoke away

 

[losp]

I have not tried spent grains, but i have tried old grains (grains that were probably just past their use by for brewing. and its a nope. I didnt do this because i thought it was a clever idea, i did it out of desperation because i had the trout out of the brine and dried and i couldnt find my giant bag of ******* wood.

I don't think grains are any good for smoking, unless you have a very low temperature heat, or put it far away from the heat source. and even then its not a scent of an aromatic wood. it just tastes/smells like burnt food (well that's sort of whats happening isn't it). But you never know, you might like it i guess, maybe you might start smoking left over spaghetti bow-ties or potatoes?

 

[Phoney]

I think anything combustible that isn't toxic can be used for smoking.

Massive no no.

To quote one of the best websites on the internet:

Bad wood. Whatever you do, never use wood from conifers such as pine, fir, cyprus, spruce, redwood, or cedar. They contain too much sap and they can make the meat taste funny. Some have been known to make people sick. Yes, I know that cedar planks are popular for cooking salmon on, but I don't know anyone who burns cedar as a smoke wood. I have also heard that elm, eucalyptus, sassafras, sycamore, and liquid amber trees impart a bad flavor.

As for using spent grain, I would run it through a food dehydrater for 24 hours first, get the moisture out of there. Then I would experiment using cheap meat like chicken wings, unless you have a dog that you're happy to feed whatever you wont eat.

 

[white.grant]

That link just made me very hungry

 

[manticle]

Massive no no.

To quote one of the best websites on the internet:

'isn't toxic' to my mind excludes anything that can make you sick. As for the others - that's up to the user to find things that impart pleasant flavours that they enjoy- which will not, by any means, be all things non toxic and combustible. I certainly didn't mean to imply that. I have no idea whether spent grain will be pleasant but I'm pretty certain it won't kill you.

As an example - that site recommends against cedar, yet quotes an example of someone successfully using cedar to smoke salmon (uniquely so).