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Grain Disposal

edited June 2015 in General

This question is aimed at the urban and suburban all grain guys. In the past, I have strained the grain and then bagged and put in the garbage can. Now I have three cracked cans from the weight when emptied by the garbage man. I am mashing 75 pounds dry weight, so probably 85 pounds wet. So how are you all disposing of your spent grains?

Comments

  • Lots of the all grain beer guys are now giving their spent grains to the backyard chicken farmers that seem to be everywhere these days. I've got at least 4 neighbors that I know that all have hens. I bet they could go through 40 pounds a week easy. And I'm right on the edge of urbia and suburbia, about 12 miles outside NYC.

    Otherwise, dump it in the compost pile for topsoil if you do any of your own lawn work or gardening.

  • I live on the edge of rural and suburban Chicago and don't know any chicken farmers, but it got me thinking that I do know a guy with pigs, maybe he could use it. I work a lot not much time for gardening.

  • edited June 2015

    Pig guy will love you, and you'll love the tasty whiskey pigs.

  • That's my suggestion as well - Find an animal farmer and depending on how often you run, most will love the free food for their livestock.

    Talked to a brewer that just opened the doors around the corner from where I live and he has a pig farmer swinging by after every mash.

  • Reckon the yokes from the whiskey chickens are gonna be rich and beautifully colored too.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited June 2015

    Best eggs I ever ate were after the cicada infestation in the States in 2013. All the locals with backyard chickens didn't know what to do with all the eggs. Talk about fat and happy chickens. I know the thought of this is absolutely stomach turning, but damn they were good eggs. You needed to beat the yolk with a hammer to scramble it, neon orange too. That completely spoiled me, never realized how tasteless, watery, and runny supermarket eggs were, paper thin shells, pale yellow yolks...

    I bet you if you put up a sign on the pin board at your local hipster coffee joint offering free chicken feed, you'd get more calls than you knew what to do with.

  • Never had them but my old Cuban gentleman friend (head chemist for a big sugar outfit for 40 years) tole me about a place in the Cuban mountains where coffee and the fruit trees called Guayabita grows. He said the farmers keep the coops under the trees and the chickens eat the falling fruit. He said the yokes are very bright orange and also very sweet.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • I actually got some corn from this guy last year and it was as hard as a rock. Had to run it thru the grinders 3 times to get a rough meal out of it. He said it was less than 4 percent moisture. He burned it in a wood burner for his workshop.

  • Pigs is the definitive answer. Chickens are definitely second best and third comes composting. Composting is difficult as the grain clumps and goes sour. The best way i have found (and i have similar size batches to dispose of on brew day) is to rake it into a dormant bed.
    Trouble being there is not often a dormant bed.
    If you turn it into the compost it has to be mixed with a lot of other material and turned often in order to stop it going sour.

    Going sour is also the problem with animal feed, by next day it's already starting to turn in buckets and by the day after there is some mold starting to form as it cools. If you have someone picking it up, it should be same day, next morning.
    Not all chooks will eat it, but most seem to, depends how spoilt they are i guess.
    Pigs will devour it, and being on the pig farmers mates list is almost as good as being on the distillers mates list. B-)

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • I have fed it to the chickens.

    I have also frozen it when there is room in the chest freezer. In small bags or milk jugs, for later use. Added to other baked items.

    When I have small quantities, we have baked it into crackers for dog treats first and then for us. But 75 pounds at a time would be unrealistic to bake.

    Soon I will have the cows and the distillery close together.

    DAD... not yours.. ah, hell... I don't know...

  • edited June 2015

    I fold mine into the compost heap. Friend of mine has a tree cutting service and gives me wood chips. I mix the grains in with wood chips and other grass trimmings from the yard and scraps from the kitchen. My home gets 180 inches of rain per year. It never gets below 50F here. Shit composts quickly.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @Kapea said: I fold mine into the compost heap. Friend of mine has a tree cutting service and gives me wood chips. I mix the grains in with wood chips and other grass trimmings from the yard and scraps from the kitchen. My home gets 180 inches of rain per year. It never gets below 50F here. Shit composts quickly.

    Sounds like the perfect place for a dunder pit.

  • I like my rum light. No need for propagating biohazards.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

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