What to do with the spent grain after home brewing?

Brewing at home is a hobby that naturally tends to be more sustainable than buying manufactured beers. This occurs for several reasons, including: the logistics of bottled liquids that depend on fossil fuels, the use of raw materials by the industry that use cardboard and plastics for boxes, the manufacture of glass bottles that are disposable (while the home brewer reuses the bottles), etc. Therefore, brewing at home is a good way to drink good beers and help save the planet.

However, despite the relatively smaller ecological impact of the hobby, we can always do a little more and one of the main means for this is to use malt bagasse, which has a high nutritional value because, discarding the absorbed water, it is composed of fiber(~70%) and protein(~20%), and always make up a very significant discard after a brew.

Recipes with Spent Grain

From what I've noticed and researched, you can keep the malt cake for a few days or even two weeks in the fridge without spoiling, experimenting from time to time to make sure it hasn't really broken. If you want to keep them longer, dry them or freeze them.

The drying process is time-consuming and laborious. You should spread the beans in one form (I suggest using more than one form to take advantage of the gas) and put in the oven at the minimum temperature (usually 160oC to 180oC) and leave for a few hours, occasionally turning the oven off and on again so as not to brown the beans . The ideal would be to leave them at 90oC for about 7 hours. But generally home ovens are not designed to stabilize at this temperature.

Ways of using malt bagasse

It is necessary to think about how the bagasse will be used before preparing any recipe.

• Wet: As it comes out of the pan – after being squeezed in a sieve to remove excess water;

  • More complicated use, yields less and asks on average 50% more flour in the recipe. It can be kept in the refrigerator at low temperature for 3 days or frozen.

• Dry : After drying, transforms it into “flour”;

  • More versatile and easier to use, yields more and uses less flour. To do this, place the wet bagasse in the oven at a low temperature.

• Powdered : The flour from above, only beaten in a blender.

  • Same benefits as dry, doesn't take up space in the refrigerator and incorporates better in more recipes.

Recipes to make with malt bagasse

The most popular recipe is bread, but there are other sweet and savory options. In addition to the recipes we will present, you can also use bagasse for breading, replacing breadcrumbs with malt flour.

There are several bread recipes, but we'll put the one we like the most and other recipes below.

Cookies

A great advantage of making cookies with bagasse is that you can use a higher malt bagasse/flour ratio, and thus use a greater amount of bagasse per batch, and even less work because there is no need to knead the dough and not even expect to grow. A disadvantage is that the cookie, to be good, requires a more expensive side dish, such as cashew nuts or chocolate chips.

I found this recipe on a gringo site, translated and adapted it.

• 1/3 cup peanut butter

• 3 tablespoons of butter

• 1 cup of sugar

• 1/3 cup of milk

• 1 vanilla coffee spoon

• 2 cups of flour

• 2 cups of malt pomace

• 1 coffee spoon of baking soda

• 1/2 coffee spoon of salt

• 1/2 cup of ground cashews or chocolate chips or hazelnuts

Mix all the ingredients, portion the dough and bake at 200oC for 10 minutes.

Kibe

I already tried making kibbeh once and it was horrible. I believe it was a technical failure of mine, I had done a somewhat negligent BIAB and there was too much residual sugar in the bagasse, resulting in a sweetened kibbeh. I still intend to test this recipe below:

KIBBEH WITH MALT POSTAGE

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until doughy consistency. Put in a shape and if you want to press with shapes to make the shapes.

Bake on low heat (180oC) for half an hour. Remove from oven and finish shapes - or cut into several pieces. Return to the oven at the lowest temperature possible and leave it to dry well. Recommended on gringo sites is 100oC for two to five hours. As the minimum temperature in my oven is 180oC I kept turning it on and off. It is important to dry the biscuit well to increase its shelf life, otherwise it develops mold very quickly.

Drying well, the biscuit will last for at least two weeks in a ziplock.

Chicken a la Winterfell

This very interesting recipe comes from the Game of Brews website, which seeks to reproduce recipes from the series Game of Thrones, and would, according to them, be a recipe for northerners.

Cooking: Chicken and Spent Grain Barley Stew

I tried a simplified version of it and it was really nice.

• 200g of chicken fillet, seasoned and cut into cubes

• 1 cup malt pomace

• 1 chopped onion

• 1 crushed garlic clove

• 100g of chopped broccoli, 100g of grated carrots (or any other combination of vegetables)

• 1 cube of broth (vegetables or chicken)

• 1 spoon of butter

• 1 spoon of flour

With the bouillon cube, prepare two cups of broth, set aside. In a pan, saute the onion and garlic until golden. Add chicken and sauté until golden. Add the vegetables. When the vegetables reach the desired point, add the broth and malt cake. Cook for a few minutes until reduced. Use the flour and butter to prepare the roux, which is the technique used to thicken broths in French cuisine. I simply mix the flour and butter in a cup and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, then I mix it well. Add the roux, cook a little longer and serve with a rustic bread. Serves two people.

Counterfeit Chilli

Just replaced the beans with the spent malt grains in some practical and quick Mexican Chilli recipe.

• 400g of ground beef

• Two cups of malt pomace

• a minced pepperoni sausage

• a chopped onion

• Four crushed garlic cloves

• a packet of tomato sauce

• 300 ml of a craft beer of your choice

• Salt to taste for seasoning ground beef

• Chili style seasonings (pepper, coriander, cumin etc...)

Season the meat with salt and seasoning. Saute the onion and garlic in a large skillet or wok. Add the minced meat and pepperoni sausage and saute well. Add the tomato sauce, beer and malt pomace and cook for about ten minutes, setting the seasoning to suit your taste. Serve with rice and doritos.

BARLEY AND HONEY BREAD RECIPE

• 300 g of Ground Barley Malt

• 800 g of Wheat Flour

• 4 spoons of honey

• 1 sachet of Dry Biological Yeast

• 1 spoon of salt

• 350ml of milk

• 1 spoon of margarine

• 2 eggs

Preparation in the bread machine : Simply put everything and press the option to make whole-grain bread, don't go wrong, the machine will do all the work for you.

Preparation without bread machine

• First, buy a bread machine. Haha #Brinks – But it really makes it easier.

• If you want bread without that thick dough and whole grains, crush the malt cake in a blender together with the milk to get thinner and better incorporated into the dough.

• Place in a container and add half the flour, salt, margarine and biological yeast.

• Mix the ingredients until you get a homogeneous mass.

• Add the spoons of honey and gradually add the flour.

• Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Squeeze, punch and knock. The dough should be fluffy and homogeneous, not sticky. If you feel any sticky surface, add a little more flour to it. It should be elastic, almost like a rubber. If you pinch it with your fingertip, it should soon be smooth again.

• Put it in a container, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for 20 minutes. The dough will grow a little.

• Knead some more and add flour if it's still sticky. beware of exaggerations

• Leave the dough to rest for another 20 minutes.

• Preheat oven for 5 minutes at 250ºC.

• Grease the pan where you are going to make the bread.

• Remember that biological yeast will make the bread grow more in the heat, so don't overdo the size too much.

• You can beat two eggs in a separate container and rub the outside of the dough to add color and crispness to the outside of your bread.

• Leave the bread in the oven for about 60 minutes. Follow the growth and the desired color, but avoid opening and closing the oven door.

• When removing from the oven, unmold the bread and keep it on an airy surface so as not to sweat the underside of the bread.

If you are not going to consume it right away, you can wrap the bread in plastic and consume it later.

MALT AND APPLE WAFFLE

Ingredients

• 2 eggs

• 3⁄4 cup milk

• 1⁄4 cup oil

• 1/4 cup malt bagasse

• 1/2 a red apple with peel

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 1⁄2 spoon (coffee) salt

• 1 cup wheat flour

• 2 spoons (soup) cornmeal

• 2 teaspoons chemical yeast

Preparation

• Mix the flour, cornmeal and yeast and set aside.

• Put in a blender glass: eggs, milk, oil, malt cake, apple, sugar and salt.

• Beat until you get a smooth paste.

• Transfer this dough to a bowl, and incorporate the reserved dry ones, mixing just until you get a homogeneous dough.

• Gradually place the dough in the waffle maker (or directly into a non-stick skillet), close the machine and cook the waffles.

• Serve them still hot with honey or applesauce.

MEAT BALLS WITH MALT PASS

• 300g ground beef

• 200g ground pork shank

• 100g crumbled ham sausage (if it is too coarse, chop more with the knife)

• 1/3 cup malt bagasse

• 1 big egg

• 3 finely chopped garlic cloves

• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion

• 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

• salt and pepper

Preparation

• In a mini processor, beat the egg with the malt cake until smooth.

• Place in a bowl and mix all other ingredients.

• If necessary, match the consistency of the meatball with malt pomace flour (or breadcrumbs).

• Shape the meatballs with your hands and grill in a non-stick frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil, stirring to brown.

• Serve them like this, or topped with fresh tomato sauce.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE WITH BEER AND SPENT MALT

• 1 cup chopped dark chocolate

• 2/3 cup unsalted butter

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 1/2 cup Schwarzbier Malt Bagasse, Dunkel, Stout, Porter

• ½ cup Schwarzbier, Dunkel, Stout, Porter beer

• 2 eggs

• 1 ¼ cup sugar

• 2/3 cup wheat flour

• 1 spoon (coffee) salt

• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder

• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate

Preparation

• Melt 1 cup of finely chopped dark chocolate with the butter in a double boiler, then add the vanilla, beer and malt cake. Reserve.

• Beat the eggs in a mixer until they are fluffy and voluminous.

• Add sugar gradually, without stopping to beat, to meringue. Reserve.

• Separately, mix the flour, salt and cocoa powder. Reserve.

• Add the melted chocolate mixture to the beaten eggs, then incorporate the dry ones.

• Mix the chopped chocolate roughly, and place in a greased baking dish sprinkled with cocoa powder.

• Bake at 180C for approx. 40 min, or until surface is dry but center is still damp.

• Cool for 1 hour before unmolding.