Sustainable Brewing: Spent Grains to Cookies!

Baking with Spent Grains

"Spent grain can constitute as much as 85% of a brewery's total by-product."- Kay Witkiewicz 'Sustainable Uses of Spent Grains'

Grains such as malt, wheat, and barely give beer its wonderful flavor and color. Grains are placed in a nylon bag and dunked into hot water to soak just as you would make tea. After an hour or so, the hot water is aromatic and on its way to becoming beer. But what to do with the ~2 lbs of spent grain now that sugar, nutrients, and proteins have been extracted? 

                                         

          Soaking grains in hot water extracts the flavor and color of the grains without introducing bits of grain

My first brewing session was a disorganized, nerve racking, late night adventure followed by 8am classes and long days. Wet grains quickly became moldy grains and they had to be tossed, an unfortunate waste that could have been used to make cookies, bread, cakes, waffles, granola or any number of delicious treats! As a part of zero-waste brewing I was better prepared for my second batch and was ready to bake.

                            A delicious way to incorporate a byproduct of the brewing process into brewing routine!

You guys already tasted my first attempt at baking with spent grains, and I think the cookies turned out pretty well. The 40+ cookies and granola I made disappeared within in the day so I'm taking that as a compliment. They were also super healthy and accidentally, also vegan. Next time I am psyched to try spent grain waffles!

Here are some other sustainable options that small-mid sized breweries around the country are doing with their spent grains. 

Some of my favorites are:

Full Sail Brewery: Provides farmers in the Hood Valley with 160 tons of spent grains a week, diverting 97% of wastes from the landfill.

Standing Stone Brewing Company- Ashland, OR

Feeds more than 5 dozen chickens and hopes to use the spent grains as fertilizer that will help them grow fruits and vegetables in the future

 The Brewery at Blackberry Farm Wallant, TN

Use grain to feed chickens, sheep, llamas and pigs which provide eggs, milk, wool, and meat for patrons

Alaskan Brewing Company: Designed a broiler fueled entirely by spent grain that will lead to “more than 60% reduction in fuel oil use in the first year, and, with moderate growth assumptions, this transfers to a fuel savings of nearly 1,500,000 gallons of oil over the next 10 years.”