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What Happens to Spent Grain After Whiskey Distilling?

Farm distilleries might be the hottest thing in craft distilling, but they’re not a new concept. In fact, distilling and farming have been linked for hundreds of years, and it’s not just because farming is thirsty work.

Distilleries produce a lot of byproducts, but on a farm, those byproducts are a valuable resource. Spent grain, the grain left over after distillation, is one of the most important ones. It’s a pure waste product of distilling, but it turns out that the grain left over after making whiskey is perfect for feeding livestock. It’s enabled a symbiotic relationship that’s made farmers out of distillers and forged relationships between local agriculture and local distilling for generations.

spent grains
Washington’s Hunter Farms makes use of Hardware Distillery spent grains. (image via Hardware Distillery)

To understand the various uses for spent grain, you’ll need to understand the forms it can take. Basically, there are two kinds of spent grain: the stuff left over after making beer, and the stuff left over after making mash.

Single malt distilleries in Scotland, and some craft distillers, make beer, using basically the same technique as any brewer: steep barley in hot water, then strain the liquid out to ferment, leaving the soaked grains behind. Bourbon distillers, and some other craft distillers, make mash: cook flour or crushed grains in hot water, ferment it on the grain, and then load the whole soupy mess into the still, flour and all.

Spent grain from beer looks more or less like cooked whole grain, sort of like the barley you might find in soup, and tastes sweet. It’s easy to transport and immediately feed to poultry, pigs, and cattle.

Spent grain from a bourbon mash, on the other hand, looks more like pancake batter, and it tastes pretty bad – it’s been fermented and then subjected to intense heat inside a still. A runny slurry is not only impossible to feed to most animals, it’s also too expensive to transport due to its weight and volume. Furthermore, it goes bad quickly, sometimes within a day or two.

So bourbon distilleries need to separate the grain from the liquid in order to use it. Most large-scale bourbon distilleries have a downstream processing area where workers use dewatering presses and evaporators or driers to create a product that’s stable, shippable, and edible for animals.

Spent grain can also be used to feed another important farm resident: plants. It’s a great addition to composts, and some farm distilleries even spread it over their fields to add extra nutrients. And lastly, spent grain from beer can even feed humans, adding fiber, flavor, and texture to breads and other baked goods.

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