Spent Brewers Grain?

[mylilchix]

We are a new brewery that will be generating 1000's of lbs of "spent grain" each week. Spent grain is our term for ground barley that has been used in brewing and much of the starch content has been converted away. The resulting wet grain is excellent livestock feed that contains about 30% protein and you can read about it.

I saw this ad on Craigslist this morning and was wondering if it would be safe for pigs. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Sonja

 

[Dino]

Yep, my pigs eat it when I brew my own from scratch (all grain method). Some animals like it, some don't. Its grains that were germinated, dried, tumbled, roasted and ground to varying degrees depending on the beer or whiskey being made. Most of the sugars have been removed. Try it and see if yours like it. Remember though if you take too much what they don't eat will spoil.

 

[mylilchix]

Awesome thanks! It's free feed, so I was hoping it might be worth a try!

 

[Goatherd]

I'm sure it's coincidental but I saw an ad almost identical on Craigslist regarding spent grain. I responded several times and never got a response. In my case, I wondered if it was legit or a scam collecting e-mail addresses. If you do respond, let me know if you get an answer. Thanks.

 

[mylilchix]

I'm sure it's coincidental but I saw an ad almost identical on Craigslist regarding spent grain. I responded several times and never got a response. In my case, I wondered if it was legit or a scam collecting e-mail addresses. If you do respond, let me know if you get an answer. Thanks.

I definitely will. Seems a little too good to be true. This ad is from Colorado. Where was yours from?

 

[Harbisgirl]

My husband brews with all grain and we give our spent grains to our critters. They LOVE it. I also ferment chicken feed and toss in some spent grain to ferment in along with it - the chickens go crazy for it

 

[Goatherd]

This ad is from Colorado. Where was yours from?

Pennsylvania

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Just a word to the wise- the spent grain is good as a treat only. It is NOT a complete food and I have doubts about it's nutritional content. I have had chickens starve (saved them before they died) while eating all they can/ wanted of it.

 

[jhm47]

You all are referring to a product that is similar to what we feed from the ethanol plants around here. Ours is made from corn, and yours is probably made from barley. Ours is refined into nearly 100% pure alcohol, and yours is probably marketed as beer for human consumption. The byproducts are either distillers grains (corn based ethanol production), or spent brewers grains (barley based, human consumption). These byproducts are fairly similar in nutritional values. Actually, the only thing that is removed from either byproduct is the starch, or the carbohydrates. The proteins and oil (fat) is still there, and there is a lot of dead yeast cells in them.

The distillers grains that I'm familiar with (been feeding various forms of it for 10 years) are tremendous products. You can overfeed them if you're not careful. The thing you need to remember is that a bushel of corn (weight 56 lbs) will produce about 2.8 gallons of pure alcohol, and about 17 lbs of distillers grains. Remember---the protein and fat is still there in that 17 lbs of product, so basically the 17 lbs contains about 3X the concentration of protein and fat of the original corn. It also contains all the minerals and sulfur of the original bushel of corn. Too much sulfur can cause major neurological problems in any animal. You also need to adjust their mineral supplements to balance the large amount of phosphorous that distillers grains contains. A mineral containing mostly calcium is what I use.

I feed our cows about 12 - 15 lbs of distillers products by dry matter content with no problems. Some people who live in areas where the water is high in sulfur will have problems with that much, but since our water is very low in sulfur, we have no problems. The product is highly palatable, and I have had tremendous luck with feeding it. I'm currently feeding some very low quality hay mixed with distillers, and the cows love it and are doing well on it.

As to spent brewers grains, they should be similar to distillers grains, but I'd look up the nutritional values somewhere before feeding it. Good luck!

 

[Heirloom]

I am a homebrewer among everything else. The spent grains are a good treat for most livestock. I wouldn't use it as a main grain though.

When brewing, the barely is steeped (called mash) in hot water (between 145-160 degrees) to active the amylase enzymes to convert starches into fermentable and unfermentable sugar compounds. The 'spent' grain will be not much more than roughage after mashing, though it still contains sugars and starches. Depending on what kind of beer was brewed, the spent grains can contain varying amounts of leftover sugars and starches. Also, know that there can be several different grains in a mash. So if you feed your milk goats brew grains that have...say...rye, then it's POSSIBLE that you can get off flavors in the milk.