Making bread with spent grain

There have been occasional threads about your question, but if you do a search and don't find anything then they may be in the archives. You could also try the Food & beer forum.

I doubt that you want the damp grain to sit around until you've researched this, so you might want to freeze the grain for now.

 

It needs to be dried. I wouldn't keep it around wet. It'll get FUNKY fast.

 

I've kept it damp in the fridge for a day or two before making bread, but I wouldn't keep it any longer than that.
Generally I try to make it that day, or the next morning.
I also do freeze the spent grains (not all of them) in a baggie for later use.

 

There is a ton of lactobacillus on grain husks. If you leave it alone when moist, it will create lactic acid. Odds are you don't want that, so throw it out or dry it out in your oven.

Personally, I extract ~75-80% of sugars so I throw my grist away.

 

if you use it wet you have to adjust the rest of the liquid in the recipe. there is also not a lot of flavor after the sparge, but they do add some good texture. I mostly dump the spent grain in the garden where, when the snow melts it will be turned into vegetables.

 

Some good stuff here.
http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/category/spentgrainchef/
If not making the bread today, I would dry it.

 

My gf always makes the bread that evening while it's still moist. She tried drying the grains a couple of times but we weren't as happy with the result...

 

If you're not planning to use it the same day, then either dry it or freeze it.
A lot of people will tell you to toss it simply because the flavor and nutritive value have been significantly depleted by the mash. All you're left with is the nutritive equivalent of cardboard. In the vacuum in which they formed this recommendation, I won't argue with that. But, if you're looking for a blast of fiber/roughage, this is a perfect source. Particularly when you consider that the most common alternative is to toss it (essentially, it's free). If I'm making muffins or whole-grain bread on the same day, I'll throw a handful of this stuff in the mixing bowl, wet - no adjustments to the recipe are necessary (don't overthink this - it takes the fun out of it). Otherwise, it goes in the vegetable garden - it loosens the soil nicely.

 

I've used spent grain to make flour to use as beer batter for fish/chicken.
Run in through a food dehydrator same day to dry out then blend into flour. It's a little bland by itself but battering with beer and adding some spices it fries up quite nice.

not sure about bread though.

 

You're just going to leave us hanging?

 

Before you spend time and use ingredients it's worth just tasting a sample of the spent grain.I always find it totally featureless (which means that, as intended, all the malt flavour has gone into the beer) and would be unlikely to improve any bread. It isn't called "spent grain" for nothing.

 

OTOH my friend Mike makes an Irish Soda Bread with his spent grains that is some of the most delicious, finely textured breads I ever have tasted.

 

The benefit is in the fiber and roughage. To that end, this is is a pretty incredible ingredient.

 

Maybe that's why making it into dog biscuits is such a good option, that's what I plan to do. Right now I just dump it in the back garden and the dog usually eats about 1/4 of it before he gets tired of it.
PLEASE NOTE : NEVER FEED SPENT HOPS TO YOUR DOG THEY WILL GET VERY SICK>

 

Funny that you should say that about the dog and getting sick. I usually put my spent grain in the compost pile, but this last time I didn't feel like walking 100' thru 18" of snow to get there so I put it on the ground under the bird feeder (it's right next to the house and I have a shoveled path to get there). I figured that either the birds or the deer that frequent my yard would eat it, but it just sat there undisturbed for a week or so. It's gone now, but I don't know why it took them so long. Maybe they realize that there are no appreciable nutrients there? (Or maybe it was the opossums that finally ate it.) From now on, the grain is going into the compost pile.