Spent mash

[ShininWeed]

this may be a newbe question...but ...I no longer have hogs & chickens...which loved my beer mashes.....so besides compost pile...is there anything beneficial in spent grain mash? I'm a tight ass and hate wasting anything ...can it be added to future mashes? ...is there anything left in it to be worth while? granted I can't press every drop of liquid out when straining ...just looking for options before chucking...thanks

[PalCabral]

The classic is to add sugar and water on top of the mashed grains, add some yeast and ferment it. Then distill, stripping run or just a refluxed spirit run, and keep the cut tight. However, the second time used grains probably needs to go. I put them in the garbage.

[subbrew]

+ Palcabral

You don't even need to add yeast, there is plenty in the grain. see the thread of sugarheads. viewtopic.php?t=94085

[ShininWeed]

The classic is to add sugar and water on top of the mashed grains, add some yeast and ferment it. Then distill, stripping run or just a refluxed spirit run, and keep the cut tight. However, the second time used grains probably needs to go. I put them in the garbage.

ok cool...I have the last run I did ....it's backset... from a mead based run...I'll experiment a bit and add that instead of water for volume ...and I'll definitely run it through my reflux column for a clean spirit ...thanks for the pointers.... and subbrew thanks for the link to the sugarheads thread

[subbrew]

Backset and spent grain are a bit different. Backset will give flavor but it is also acid and a sugar wash already has issues with PH crash. So if using backset you need to either add some sodium hydroxide or pickling lime to raise the baskset ph to 5.5 or so and then add some calcium carbonate (oyster shells) to buffer the ph of the sugar wash during the fermentation.

[ShininWeed]

Backset and spent grain are a bit different. Backset will give flavor but it is also acid and a sugar wash already has issues with PH crash. So if using backset you need to either add some sodium hydroxide or pickling lime to raise the baskset ph to 5.5 or so and then add some calcium carbonate (oyster shells) to buffer the ph of the sugar wash during the fermentation.

ok cool thanks for the direction...like I said....I'm a tight ass and hate wasting anything...if there is anything usable left after initial runs...thanks again

[shadylane]

One disadvantage to reusing spent grains is the increased odds of an infection.
Often when fermenting on the grain it's a race between bacteria and yeast.
During the squeezing even more bacteria and wild yeast get's to the mash.

[planohog]

I have had more good luck than bad, what you have to lose is price of the sugar and your time and energy costs. Its a great way to keep your mitts off the AG mix while it ages on oak, or pecans or what ever you are using. I did learn the hard way that PH is a bit low on spent grain. and you should expect to use oystershells or something to keep it from crashing. Yeast like nutrients and if you have some of the trub , that will help, it also has live yeast in it. Dont go overboard. I use the hotwater out of the tap to melt the sugar, 10 lbs a gallon is easy with paint stir on a drill. make sure you let it cool off before you addit to the spent grain. sugar - water ration 1.5 lbs per gallon in the ferment , try to stay below 1.07 SG . The outout of strip/spirit run will be nice. I will have a sugar bite if consumed neat on ice , it will mix well for your favorite cocktail. Stay far away from the heads and tails, it will be fine. , make a mistake, re-run it again making sure you dont break the 40abv charge rule. ( you will make a mess out of your house and next door too ). If you take some time, weeks, to try out UJSM methods, you will get really good at sugar wash on anything after that. Its ok if you have a epic taste fail, or infection fail, all of us , have them from time to time. it will sharpen your skill. If you start to feel like a machine, watch out, that is when fails occour due to lack of detail to the craft. I always wonder what am i going to spill this time. It always happens, something somewhere, somehow, mop bucket on isle #3 , so expect the unexpected and use egg timer to remind you if you dose off .

[subbrew]

One disadvantage to reusing spent grains is the increased odds of an infection.
Often when fermenting on the grain it's a race between bacteria and yeast.
During the squeezing even more bacteria and wild yeast get's to the mash.

So far I have not had an issue with infections. I have had lacto infections but they are slow acting so as long as you run your stripping runs within a month I saw no ill effects. I think I had a butric infection once, started to get the vomit smell. But I had to leave for work for 5 days and when I came back the smell was gone. The batch ran fine and I am getting no off flavors. Distilling seems much more forgiving of an infection compared to beer making.