That’s a LOT of beer. Need any help drinking it? :cheers: [/quote]
hahaha I’m doing well holding my own. Being retired means I can start drinking beer any time of the day I feel like. I do have a couple of friends, but they don’t come around all that often. Life is good . . . .
I cannot get deer to like them. We have deer all over the place and I dump piles in the woods that go untouched for weeks[/quote]Probably because your brew house efficiency is too high. There’s not enough sugar left in the grains for the deer to want it.[/quote]
I think that is probably it.
Past few batches I’ve been putting them in the compost bin. Gonna have to slow that down because it’s getting kind of full.
(side question, how long do all you composters see it taking to break stuff down?)
Besides that, I will generally save some for bread or other baked goods. I have a easy recipe (Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day) that I will swap a bit of the regular flour for spent grains. Gives it a nice change from regular bread.
Starting 2 batches ago (not all that long ago . . . ) I started dumping them into my small garden space. I have an area about 10’x10’ that I use for a few tomato plants, and a couple pepper plants. I get volunteers growing up every year, and hardly ever plant new plants. I’ve harvested all of the tomatoes this year, so I’m going to cover the whole area with about 3"-5" of spent grains. I’ve got several more 10-gallon batches planned for the next few months - 5 are lagers once the garage gets cold. Just letting the spent grains sit on the top of the ground, with all of the tomato stems still there. I will then use the rototiller this spring, along with a wheelbarrel full of finished compost, and grind it all together. After the ground warms up, there will be several tomato plants starting up all on their own. I just stake them where they come up, I don’t line them up or anything. Sounds lazy (and it is) but it works.
