The Beautiful Bounty of Barley and Rye – from Beer to Bread to Livestock Feed.
On Friday I made an all-grain batch of beer – Rye Pale Ale. As some of you may know when you brew an all-grain batch you can use upwards of 25 lbs. of grain before it’s all said and done. Even though the barley and rye are doing a great job to produce 10 gallons of great homebrew I often feel guilty about all the grain left overs.
Problem solved and guilt erased! On Saturday I looked up a Spent Grain Beer Bread recipe a friend sent to me right after I did my last batch of homebrew; unfortunately after I already composted the grain. But, yesterday I was ready with recipe in hand (aka – on computer screen) and commenced to making my first Spent Grain bread!
Recipe for Spent Grain Bread: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f56/spent-grain-bread-machine-recipe-85379 ( I substitued whole wheat for white flour)
How did it turn out? Well, my 3 ½ and 1 ½ year old daughters had the first taste and happily gave me their seal of approval – well, they could have enjoyed the honey topping more than the bread?! As for me, it was perfect! It was moist, light to medium consistency, and multi-grain hearty/healthy. Plus, it just gives you about the same feeling you get when you make homebrew. A sense of a job well done and knowing one can make their own beer and bread!
Spent Grain Bread
The grain story is not over yet though! Making Spent Grain bread only takes a small portion of the 25 lbs. of spent grain. To further continue the cycle of reusing this grain I had the perfect opportunity as today I picked up 3 new friends who will be spending the next 6 +/- months with us:
Tamworth PIgs
Spent Grain feed for pigs
Category: Animals, DIY Projects, Food, How-To, TreeStone Farm
Everett writes about voluntary simplicity. This blog catalogs his search for "the good life" as he tries to strike a balance between work and play, freedom and responsibility, simplicity and comfort.
Great post Tommy! We can’t wait to get our half of one of those Tamworths! Tommy if you don’t have pigs around next time you can bring the leftover spent grain here and we’ll give it to the worms. Do chickens not like it or something?
Hey Ev,
I don’t have chickens right now but I’m sure they would love it. As for the Guineas I’m lucky to see them milling around just before dark – the rest of the day I have no clue where they are ranging.
Chickens love it! I have three and they usually can eat 15-20 lbs in about 3 days after I dump it in their run after brew day. Gonna try the bread next, looks great!
Very nice! Way to full circle it. Now you just need to grow your own grain!
Jeremy, I imagine after your last brew day you had plenty of spent grain! Wasn’t one of them a spiced beer? My friend just make a spiced bourbon porter, can’t wait to try it!