After the brew...

The grains are really the only thing that get another purpose around here. I've got neighbors with a chicken coop, and I give them the grains at the end of the brew day. A few days later, I get a dozen eggs so fresh that they're still covered in poop!

 

Many breweries send it to farmers to be eaten by cattle, chickens, and other livestock.
I know some people who have used spent grains in bread.
You can always compost it, and I imagine it would be a decent fertilizer.

 

mashed up grains (spent grain) ...feed to chickens
hop slurry ... dump
yeast cake...pitch on to another (big beer) after fermentation is complete

 

Grains: Compost for either garden or mushrooms. Others try to dry, grind, and reuse. I figure if you extract right the grains should taste about like sawdust when you're done.

Hops: into the grass.

Yeast: Get a third runnings from the mashtun. boil it down, cool it, and toss the wort into the flask for a yeast starter at the end of brewday.

Yeastcake: Do as Krusty says.

 

@inchrisin Mushrooms, yeah that's the ticket! Any advice on how to use the grain for mushroom cultivation?

 

I usually dump my grain in the ditch behind my house. I've offered to give it to a couple people with chickens but they never come get it. One lady with a pig also never came to pick it up. I have made treats for my dogs with it but most of the time it just get dumped.

I wash my yeast unless I already have enough of that strain. I try to keep my own yeast bank of the strains I use most often.

 

Grain is always dumped into the our compost, which the dog always finds a way into and ends up eating. I need to do this on my next batch for him, but I usually get lazy and just dump it:

http://byo.com/hops/item/2368-grains-to-treats-last-call . If you have a dog, they'll love you for this!

As for the yeast, I'll suck up some of the cake with a sanitized turkey baster and save a few small jars. I hate wasting yeast, and have lately become kind of a yeast wrangler with good commercial beers as well.

The rest of my hop sludge/yeast cake I'll dump into the area where my hops are growing.

 

I have seen recipes for spent grain granola bars and bread, locally a pizzaria makes their crust from sent grains used in their brew pub.

 

Grain and yeast I don't plan to reuse (big beers) goes in the composter. Hops go in the garbage.

 

Grains go to either bread (which I haven't been too successful with) or our chicken.
Hops* go in bin
Yeast goes into garden (or gets reused)



* Just be aware that hops are pretty fatal to dogs IIRC, so be careful where they go

 

Most of my brewing takes place in the Fall, Winter and Spring, so my grains and hops go directly to the garden. I mix it up with the earth in the late Spring before planting the garden vegetables. I also throw a lot around the rhubarb which just loves it. I used to throw some around the hop plants (how fitting!), but I got rid of them a couple of years ago after I could no longer tell which type of hop was which (the rhizomes travel everywhere and for long distances).

Often I re-use the yeast for a subsequent batch. If not, in the garden they go as well.

 

Everything goes into my compost bin along with my yard and garden waste, kitchen veggie scraps, etc.

 

Grains go in the compost bin or in the garden. Hops generally in the trash and yeast goes down the drain, aside from when I try to save some for the next brew.

 

I'd assume it'd look something like this:

http://www.vermontmushrooms.com/indoorcultivationmethods.html

To keep it relevant, it would be with your spent grains after doing a mash out. I've never tried anything like this, personally. If I did I'd make sure I'm drinking a homebrew while attempting it.

 

Cool, thanks

 

I make dog treats from all of the spent grains I have. Some peanut butter, egg, and flower, and the grains. Very simple and my 4 dogs love them!

 

Tilling in spent grain is a great way to loosen up a clay-rich soil, or enrich sandy soil.

 

Grain: I work it in with mulch in our sandy soil for banana plants.
Hops: nothing useful, down the garbage disposal.
I've tried to give the grain away but no takers ever materialize when I need them to.