anyone fed spent beer grain? - Page 2

perchie.girl :

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeepsCA 

Do they provide any info on the nutritional values and recommended feeding amounts for it? I'd try it if I had a local source for it... because even if my birds didn't like it my goats and horses would definitely hoover it up as a warm mash mixed with some molasses and other goodies in the mornings for breakfast, (they get warm soaked beat pulp with other goodies mixed in regularly already) lol.

I would be careful of feeding it to horses.....    Especially since its a product of fermentation...  If it still has a fizzy taste to it Definitely NOT.   That Whole specter of Colic comes to mind.  Though if it were dried or roasted to dry in the oven? maybe.

The goat digestive system is much more efficient than horses and can handle a wider variety of food  anything that chews cud. 

deb  "off to go find out about horses and spent beer grain"  I have had horses for 44 years and STILL learning there too.  LOL

I think distiller's grains are cooked and used before the fermentation process part of the brewing, and only the liquid is used, but I'm not sure. If it is a product of fermentation then no, feeding it to horses is just asking for a horse with a belly ache, (or 8 horses with belly aches in my case ). I can't imagine poultry being able to handle eating anything fizzy or fermented either tho. Distiller's grains are listed on several different tags of poultry feeds I am using or have used in the past... but maybe in the dried form the fermented part is mellowed out, or they process them in some onther way before using them.

Just go get a bucket! If it's nasty then you have a nice new 5 gallon bucket to store poultry or horse and goat feed in lol.

So? What did you find? Both my brother & sister-in-law and sister & brother-in-law brew their own....so if I can feed it to my chickens it will be a win-win!

Ive been getting the beer grains for my girls from a friend who is brewing a ton right now. They like it but they dont LOVE it. So far they arent dead, so ill keep on keeping on

Soonest I'll do it would be end of march....chicks don't arrive till mid-march.

We don't have Guinea yet, but I have fed this to our chickens. THey loved it and had no problem with it. It was just from a single batch of beer brewed. There was maybe a gallon of grain? Not sure the exact quantity but they ate it in one day.

You might have found out more info by now Deb, but I just wanted to add my 2 cents.

 

LOTS and LOTS of farmers feed spent grains. There is nothing fizzy or fermented about them, they are basically wet grain. The fizziness of beer comes later in the brewing process where you actually ADD a carbonator. The grain is brewed in the fist day... long before the beer gets fizzy. I get them by the 55 gallon trash can and feed it as a treat to the layers, I've noticed when I feed too much to them they slack off on eggs. I feed it mainly to the birds we are going to process for meat. There are a ton of farms that get it on a weekly basis from the breweries but I've yet to find one that doesn't already give it to a farmer, though I'd like to. I don't think it has a much nutrition as regular feed so I just mix it. The 55 gallon barrels will last me about a week and a half and I just put then next to my hay bales. I don't refrigerate or freeze or anything. I haven't had any gone bad yet. I don't think it would last beyond 2 weeks though. I feed it wet, just scoop it out into their bowls. They don't 'love' it, but they will eat it. So does the goats and rabbits.

 

Hope this helps!

A local brewery give their spent grains to a place that makes gourmet dog "cookies". I looked up online and there is a recipe for people cookies using them as well. I've found a local source in addition to my sister, and got some. I was reluctant to feed wet, so dried a bunch and fed that to the chickens...they picked at it, but didn't love it. But now that I've got alot more, I'll be giving them some more!

Spent brewers grain has been fed to animals for a long time - centuries, even. It is mostly carbohydrate and is quite digestible, being partly broken down already from the brewing process.It makes a good treat, or as part of a mash recipe.