Brew Pub Grain

[City farm]

I brew my own beer and my chickens love the spent grain.  I bag it in 1 gallon freezer bags and keep it refrigerated or freeze it.  During the hot Texas summer, I would cut the bag off a big ball of spent grain.  It was a big grain Popsicle for my 4 birds.  See the birds in action below.

How many do you have in your flock now, ? Love your video.. e

 

[City farm]

I live near an ethanol plant that uses corn.  The byproduct is excellent feed for cattle, and my chickens and peafowl love it.  The only nutrient that is removed in the fermentation/distillation process is the carbohydrates (starch), and the oils and proteins are still there.  The proteins are actually made more available to the animals, since the yeast changes them to more easily digested forms.

What beer do you brew that is always a success ? Let us know here
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/907333/brewing-beer-101-mastering-it

 

[City farm]

do you actually go to them and ask if you can have it?  how did they respond?

Yes we have with zero response.. Four Peeks of Tempe did not get back to us 3 emails & 2 face to face visits..

 

[City farm]

Our feed store mixes their own feed, and they include the spent brewers grain - and my chickens love it /img/smilies/big_smile.png (the calves chow down pretty well, too.)


Not sure how to get it on your own.


meri

That is great they include them into their feed.. Our local feed store is just baged feed. When we get the organic feed from the co-op we do FF.. Our flock loves it.. We started a new thread just for our beer grains..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/907333/brewing-beer-101-mastering-it

 

[City farm]

The city farm I work on uses it for pigs (they love it!). It comes wet, and has to be used up moderately quickly, but any that doesn't get used up can be composted. I would imagine that it could be used for other animals, although we don't.


We get it donated, although I'm not sure if this is because it is a waste product as far as the brewery is concerned, or because we are a charity.

Just noticed you said, "city farm" how cool to see that in a different sentence..
I think our flock would eat it up so quickly that we would not have any left for compost.. We give our neighbors our left overs from our run, for their compost.. I wish our local brewery would share some with their local neighbors.. I asked to have just a bit from their brew with no responce. Four Peeks is our local pub.. We still take all of our out of town guest there.. We walk there & enjoy their wonderful food & beer.. Just sad that they will not help their local community in this respect.. We have chickens owners on every block so far..
Acctaully we are a charity!! We donate a ton of our time to keep this neighborhood growing in safety, gardening & gatherings on different issues. Maybe we need to use that word to them for a response.

 

[City farm]

Let's go on a tour soon
http://www.craftbeeraz.com/

 

[SC_John]

I'm a professional brewer so I thought I would chime in even though this is an old thread. As far as hops go.... Most spent grain you get will not include hops. Grain is used in the mash. After that the liquid is separated off the grain and moved to a different vessel for boiling. Hops are added at this stage. Some brewers will use hops in their mash but it is pretty rare and only for certain beer styles. Most breweries also give away trub to farmers. Trub is the solids left over after boiling. This is going to contain little to no grain but lots of hops. From my limited research, a little bit of hops can be beneficial for the chickens, but I would stay away from feeding them straight trub unless it's mixed in with the spent grain.

As far as getting spent grains from a brewery.... as others have noted, spent grain gets gross quick. Most breweries aren't going to want to have to wait around for a bunch of small-scale farmers to come pick up grains. Most have contracts with larger farms that come on a regular basis with a big truck to haul everything away at once. It's easier for the brewery to do this than coordinate many pickups. That being said, every brewery is different so it can't hurt to ask. Your best bet is to stop by during the day before they are open. If they are brewing that day and you catch them at the right time, they'll probably let you take a bucket or two of spent grain. If a brewery does give you spent grain, bring them some fresh eggs. It will go a long way with creating that relationship.

 

[TheGreenManFarm]

I'm a professional brewer so I thought I would chime in even though this is an old thread. As far as hops go.... Most spent grain you get will not include hops. Grain is used in the mash. After that the liquid is separated off the grain and moved to a different vessel for boiling. Hops are added at this stage. Some brewers will use hops in their mash but it is pretty rare and only for certain beer styles...

As far as getting spent grains from a brewery.... Your best bet is to stop by during the day before they are open. If they are brewing that day and you catch them at the right time, they'll probably let you take a bucket or two of spent grain. If a brewery does give you spent grain, bring them some fresh eggs. It will go a long way with creating that relationship.

Seriously, thank you dude. I was reading through this old thread because I plan to begin brewing my own beer, hard cider & mead (super small scale haha) this Autumn. I was sort of thinking hops shouldn't be an issue at the mash stage, but you cleared that up brilliantly. Totes agreement with the establishment of an actual reciprocal, sustainable, local relationship with a brewery (or any other local business for that matter) by being friendly, flexible, and exercising gratitude with the fresh eggs. Just a great mentality to practice and it was great to see posted. Again, thank you!

 

[Beer can]

I don't think chickens would care even if hops were used in the mash, or in extract brewing with added steeping bags of grain if they were left in for the boil. I bet they'd gobble the spent grains anyway.

 

[FarmBurl]

To anyone not familiar with brewing-similar to the confusion about the hops-yeast isn't added until after the grains are removed, so they wouldn't have any effect on the nutritional value of the grains. If you get a hold of some of the yeast cake, though, which comes out of the fermenter after beer is made-that stuff is full of B vitamins and all sorts of other good stuff so would be great to feed to any livestock, I'm sure!