What Do You Do With Your Used Grains After Mashing?

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
chooks+spent grain = eggs.
eggs + agitation + heat = omelette.
omelette + utensils = wife's breakfast.
happy wife = happy life.
here endeth the lesson.
 
I've tried composting or on the garden beds, but it always ends up stinking up the place. Now i just scoop it all into garbage bags and straight in the bin. Really should give it to the neighbour's chooks, but afraid i'll get some pretty dodgy sideways looks.

A lot of chook breeders recommend feeding your chooks a 'mash' during autumn/winter to bump up the demands for extra nutrition during the moulting process. I'd offer it to your neighbours and explain what it is. If you get some eggs in return it's a win win.

The chooks will eat the spent grain so fast it wont have to time to smell.

If you grow hops ask for some chook manure, it's one of the best available as it's so high in nitrogen (chooks dont urinate so all the N is in their poo). Just make sure you compost it first.
 
I give it to the cows, they love it. Only one of them is brave enough to come up to the feed bin while i'm standing there, so only one gets most of it. The brahman heifers are getting pretty quiet too.

Actually if i have a keg thats not quite right and i got a fermenter back log i'll throw a few litres of beer in the feed trough, they love that too, really good for them too. I don't do that too often because they get too friendly after they've knocked back 10L of beer, plus i hate throwing away beer.

The dog likes spent grain too, he chewed threw one of my biab bags to get at it once. He has a little ritual where he eats as much as he can, then throws it up and eats it again, must taste better after he's marinated it. The dog doesn't get any beer, hops are bad for dogs apparently.
 
+1 for feeding the chooks.
Two of them get through ~5kg of grain in less than 24 hours - hungry bastards!
Cheers
 
Chooks for me aswell. DrS that is interesting about feeding chooks mash to help them. Because out of 3 chooks i have got i am getting more eggs then someone with 5 or 6 at the moment.
 
i use it for burley when i go fishing, stir in a little fish oil and it whips them into a frenzy!
if im not fishing that weekend it goes in the compost tumbler
 
The dog likes spent grain too, he chewed threw one of my biab bags to get at it once. He has a little ritual where he eats as much as he can, then throws it up and eats it again, must taste better after he's marinated it. The dog doesn't get any beer, hops are bad for dogs apparently.
Gold
 
I'm a lawn mowing man, one of my elderly customers gives me a dozen eggs every time i visit.....and so she should when i feed her chooks once a fortnight

Cheers

Strut
 
When I had chooks they had it, now its just compost. Got to keep the neighbourhood rats happy, and keep my cats fed somehow


QldKev
 
Guinea Pigs devour it. Bit in pots. Rest in Bin. Some added to PracticalFool's vegie dishes to fatten up that skinny *******.
 
Yeah I feed mine to the Chooks also. Although I found that it tends to go off by the time they eat half way through it
 
Guinea Pigs devour it. Bit in pots. Rest in Bin. Some added to PracticalFool's vegie dishes to fatten up that skinny *******.
I had a chew once but just didn't like em. Can't say I can survive on your usual rations R ;)
 
Apparently Galahs love it as well, if you live near a park or grassed reserve where they congregate. However it might take a bit of persuading a council ranger if he or she springs you :unsure:
 
Compost.

But my folks just built a palace of a chook shed so may trade my way in for free eggs from now on!
 
I threw mine on the veggie patch.Then the mice turned up, quickly followed buy a brown snake that took up residence in a hole in the backyard.With four kids that was the last time i chanced it.I'll buy a compost roller soon and chuck it in there and leave it for a couple of months from now on.
 
chook food, budgie food,then the top knots and doves come in .not good for your dog, mine eats it then throws it up all over the place so he doesnt get his share anymore.

fergi
 
I've always dumped it on the garden as a mulch. That was until we got a labrador puppy, and unfortunately the first time (and last time) I did it, we were dog sitting her sister. So 2 labrador puppies ate through 9kg of spent grains in about 3 hours. :eek: :eek: Boy, did they look bloated (but happy!) :D .

Imagine the back lawn the next morning. I'm not joking, there were no less than 20 landmines, many of them just little grain piles! The dogs did look a bit uncomfortable for a while... :huh:

Now I dump it in the FRONT yard where the dogs can't get it.
 
Lets face it, pine bark is sooooo Nineties

View attachment 47579

There would have to be about 20 brews worth there, it just keeps rotting down into the Bribie Sand underneath.


I compost mine before i put it on the garden, I love the idea but adding it directly to the garden may cause nitrogen drawdown and lock up a lot of the grounds available nitrogen until the grain is fully decomposed, and the decomposition would happen much quicker if it was compost bin.


http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2485140.htm
 

Latest posts

Back
Top