Spent Grain Disposal

[jonnys_spirit]

Hi,

I've got a couple compost piles for yard clippings and sometimes layer some grain in. The spent grain seems to be fairly robust and takes some time to compost effectively. I've spread some out for the critters but I don't particularly like the idea of spreading spent corn over the yard on a regular basis.

Wondering what other folks do to dispose of spent corn and other grains with a fairly regular distilling schedule. In this case I live just inside the city and find that 50# bags of corn aren't necessarily easy to get rid of once I'm done with them.

What do other folks do?

Cheers!
-jonny

[Samyguy]

chicken hobby

[NJen]

Yep, chickens love em.

[Expat]

Green bin fits about 60# of squeezed grains. Gets emptied once a week by the city; which is faster than I need.

[jonnys_spirit]

A spirit run for me (about 15 gallons) usually requires about 100# of grain. I'd really prefer to not put that much spent mash in the trash. Our town doesn't take food product for recycle - just cardboard.

I'm spreading a couple compost bins (green chicken netting and stakes) around the property (mostly back yard) for composting grass and leaves throughout the year so will see how I can work in some spent grains but I feel like they don't break down all that fast and tend to dry out clump up in the pile (corn in particular). I usually make each "compost pile" about 4' wide by 4-5' tall and keep filling it for 1-2yrs then let it sit and spread it out for the lawn - starting a new pile elsewhere.

Maybe some can go into "animal feeders" as well for the local wildlife?

Cheers!
-jonny

[Chip N Dale]

I just feed it to the horses.

[8Ball]

Mine goes into the trash bin with the rest of the garbage. Hobby size amounts of spent grain are no problem for me.

[stevedasleeve]

Chicken, pig, horse, cattle. I have chicken hobbyists, a fishing launch site that has 2 pigs in my town. It’s very good feed and you’ll get lots of neighborly karma! Many breweries take their spent grain to local cattle farmers. Also you can make dog treats easy enough, use some for bread baking. Lots of possibilities.

[6 Row Joe]

Just make sure you rinse them good before you give them to the critters. Ever seen drunk squirrels? LMFAO

[acfixer69]

I'm still trying to kill the ones in the roof. So go after there liver uump. Could work.

[GreenEnvy22]

For all grain beer mash leftovers, I make dog treats for our dog, and bake bread for us.
If I fermented corn and barley on the grains, I've been mixing it into our veggie gardens. We have 8 10'*4' raised beds, plus a bunch of grapes vines and Berry bushes. I am just starting in this and only plan on doing a few runs of spirits a year, so don't think acidity will build up to much. I've been dumping my wine fermentation leftovers in the gardens for years, they seem to like it.

[jog666]

Plan A: Find someone with chickens or other live stock. Even better if they are cooking the animal later, get a few steaks or chops in a few months. Hell, get you a few hens then you have a more than valid reason to buy grain in bulk and your waste grains get turned into butt nuggets that can be eaten.

Plan B: dry the corn out, grind it & make corn bread. Theres bound to be a few household in the area that would want a free pan of corn bread.

Plan C: add sugar & do a UJSSM run.

Plan D: dig a hole in the garden or yard to dump it.

[cayars]

Plan B: dry the corn out, grind it & make corn bread. Theres bound to be a few household in the area that would want a free pan of corn bread.

Have you ever tried this?

[pope]

Lol high protein cornbread! All the fat and starches are pretty well removed.

I say chickens are the #1. If you don't want some find someone who already has 'em and tell them it's from beer brewing.

[Jr-dist]

Spent grain is high in nitrogen plus acidic. Mix lime or ash with it if composting plus plenty of carbon. Beware of spreading it on your soil direct cause it will burn it as well as disolve your soil. Do not know if its the water content, the acids, the nutrient richness, or all three that makes it liquify soil. Once it turns an area liquid it will take months to get it solid again plus that area will always be prone to mud. Feed only fresh spent grains to chickens as older spent grains can give your chickens botulism. We learnt the hard way on that one. We haul tons of it to feed our hogs which it works great for as well as our sheep. Goats eat it but dont do as well on it as sheep and hogs.

[Yonder]

Plan B: dry the corn out, grind it & make corn bread. Theres bound to be a few household in the area that would want a free pan of corn bread.

Have you ever tried this?

There’s a couple of bakers in my state that do this very successfully. Premium products with ‘special’ flavors.

[cayars]

I was just wondering if it will be hard to mill down the corn after it had dried back out or if there is any problems with mold growing on the moist corn, etc.

I don't think I could eat that much corn bread!

[jonnys_spirit]

I dried some in the oven and made cornbread from HBB mash. Too many flavors were lost and the spent mash can get pretty skanky when recycling numerous generations of backset. I’ll try making it less acidic for better composting.

Cheers!
-jonny

[cayars]

Thanks for the update jonnys_spirit. That's exactly what I was worried would happen.

[jog666]

Plan B: dry the corn out, grind it & make corn bread. Theres bound to be a few household in the area that would want a free pan of corn bread.

Have you ever tried this?

No but its on the damn list of shit to try. Ive run across a few articles of it being done. "Plan B" was more of a smartass idea than anything else.

[WithOrWithoutU2]

Spent grain is high in nitrogen plus acidic. Mix lime or ash with it if composting plus plenty of carbon. Beware of spreading it on your soil direct cause it will burn it as well as disolve your soil. Do not know if its the water content, the acids, the nutrient richness, or all three that makes it liquify soil. Once it turns an area liquid it will take months to get it solid again plus that area will always be prone to mud. Feed only fresh spent grains to chickens as older spent grains can give your chickens botulism. We learnt the hard way on that one. We haul tons of it to feed our hogs which it works great for as well as our sheep. Goats eat it but dont do as well on it as sheep and hogs.

We board a couple horses down the road a bit. You have any experience with feeding it to horses? It could be 1-2 weeks from the time I strain them to feeding them to horses.

[6 Row Joe]

I rinsed a old batch of UJSSM and put it in a bucket with a snap lid. I sprinkled a heaping Cool Whip container out on the parking pad next to the yard. It was all gone this noon. It will take me a week to get rid of 10# or so. There was some rye in there too. The squirrels and rabbits must have liked it.

[acfixer69]

Keep doing it and they will move in to your house. Don't ask me how I know. I'm trapping them squirrels now. let's say agree its good bait.

[NZChris]

Keep doing it and they will move in to your house. Don't ask me how I know. I'm trapping them squirrels now. let's say agree its good bait.

I've heard they're tasty.

[NJen]

Squirrel is good stuff, similar to rabbit. Gotta cook it for a long time though, can be tough.

[jonnys_spirit]

I’ve heard cajun squirrel gumbo is very good. Grain fed even better?
-jonny

[cayars]

Grains as bait, trapped squirrel, a big old pot.
You guys sound like hillbilly moonshiners.

[6 Row Joe]

Grains as bait, trapped squirrel, a big old pot.
You guys sound like hillbilly moonshiners.

[Beerswimmer]

I empty my spent grains into buckets and drive down to the boat launch and dump them in the big dumpster there. Away from me, and that thing already stinks of dead fish.

[cayars]

I've got a spot I can dump grains in my backyard. Big hill I don't cut and it's overgrown with weeds/tallish grass and is a barrier between my property and the alley behind my house so I've been dumping it on that. Sort of disappears in the weeds.

I also hold back 50 pound bags the grains come in and just put many of my spent grains back in them and stick them in the trash. Our city has the trash trucks that pickup the city provided trash cans and dumps them without human intervention. So the guys don't get out of the truck and never look in your trash. I'll dispose of one bag this way a week and the rest goes on the hill out back these days.

If I had a garbage disposal I'd probably give that a try slowly.

My preference is disposal of sugar.