Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
Have you (or anyone) ever seen a nutritional breakdown on spent grain? It's supposedly more nutritious than grain in its unspent state, but I don't know the details.
Probably ten or more years ago now, there was an attempt to create a line of quick bread mixes based on distillery spent grain. If someone could hit on a really good use for the stuff--especially one that uses less energy to dry the slop--there is money to be made.
Getting rid of stillage is a nuisance for the distilleries and even when they are willing to give it away, wet, they are increasingly having trouble finding farmers willing to take it. Apparently free feed isn't a compelling enough reason to place a big feed lot operation in Kentucky.
Brown-Forman experimented with raising catfish on the distillery grounds in Shively. Even though the tanks were enclosed, the fish didn't care for Louisville's weather.
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
I saw somewhere it is 18 percent protien. I can tell you this, the farmer who takes ours wet, is glad to get it. He has some of the best looking cows around.
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
I keep urging microdistillers to do it the historic way--keep hogs or cattle themselves. Typically they would send the spent mash down a very long trough so it would be cool enough for the livestock to eat by the time it got to them, and so the pens didn't have to be right next to the distillery.
I was told once by a Nelson County farmer that you can't feed wet slop to chickens because the trace amounts of alcohol are enough to get them drunk.
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cowdery
I was told once by a Nelson County farmer that you can't feed wet slop to chickens because the trace amounts of alcohol are enough to get them drunk.
No basting or marinating required, though... :lol:
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cowdery
Have you (or anyone) ever seen a nutritional breakdown on spent grain? It's supposedly more nutritious than grain in its unspent state, but I don't know the details.
I imagine it has to do with the breakdown of phytic acid and perhaps enzyme inhibitors.
This ties in with the thread on whole grains.
perusing one of my cookbooks I found this:
...All grains contain phytic acid (an organic acid in which phosphorous is bound) in the outer layer or bran. untreated phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. This is why a diet high in unfermented whole grains may lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss. The modern misguided practice of consuming large amounts of unprocessed bran often improves colon transit time at first but may lead to irritable bowl syndrome and, in the long term, many other adverse effects. Soaking allows enzymes, lactobacilli and other helpfully organisms to break down and neutralize phytic acid. As little as seven hours of soaking in warm acidulated water will neutralize a large portion of phytic acid in grains....
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
Being a millwright I've worked in quite a few feed mills. I've seen spent (dried) corn meal come in from ethanol distilleries, and even fish meal.
The feed is ordered by customers and blended from several bins, additional supplements and sometimes medicines are added depending on what blend is ordered, and that of course, depends on what species is being fed and what stage of its life cycle its at.
The point being, this stuff is down to a science.
Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly if you give it some thought, free wet spent mash may not be a compelling enough reason to locate a feedlot near a distillery. Once apon a time it was. In fact many of the first large scale dairies were located near distilleries. But practices have changed.
Change is not alwas bad. These first attempts at "factory farming" in the absence of modern sanitation methods and modern stainless steal which is easier to sanitize led to the swill milk scandals and that led to the very unnecessary practice of pasteurization in lue of certification and the greater emphases on sanitation and inspection needed for the proposed certification process.
http://www.neatorama.com/2011/01/17/...lk-swill-milk/
Quote:
In the mid-1800s, it was common for whiskey and other distillers to run dairy and beef businesses on the side. The manufacture of grain alcohol require huge amounts of corn, rye, and other fresh grains, which are cooked into a mash and then distilled. Once that distillation is complete, the remaining “swill” can be discarded… or, as the distiller discovered, it can be fed to cows.
Profit, not quality, was the priority with “swill herds.” As a result, conditions in many distillery-owned dairies were atrocious. The cows spent their entire lives tied up in tiny pens, which were rarely cleaned. They received no food other than the swill -and no fresh water at all, since distillers though there was already plenty of water in the swill.
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cowdery
I keep urging microdistillers to do it the historic way--keep hogs or cattle themselves. Typically they would send the spent mash down a very long trough so it would be cool enough for the livestock to eat by the time it got to them, and so the pens didn't have to be right next to the distillery.
I was told once by a Nelson County farmer that you can't feed wet slop to chickens because the trace amounts of alcohol are enough to get them drunk.
We considered it, but it is so hard to find people who will work that I would wind up tending to the cows and i have enough to do already. And the state would have a fit probably.
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
I tried to talk the Mt. Vernon folks into doing it at Washington's distillery, since that's surely what they did in the day. They laughed.
Re: Recipes for Spent Grain
