What do you do with your spent grains after you are done mashing? Are they good for the garden as a mulch? Feed them to the dog or cat… pigs? Compost pile?
I toss them in the compost heap. Seems to make great compost to toss onto the hop garden area. I’ve given some to a friend who’s made some all-grain-ish bread with them, but that’s a lot of bread to make with 10 pounds of spent grains.
Give them to my neighbors chickens.
We usually have at least 4 deer that stop by daily. They love 'em!!!
I have a compost heap next to a game trail behind the house. What the critters don’t eat, I mix into the rest. Be sure to turn it every day for the first few days or the smell will overwhelm. Before I started mixing the grain in with the rest of the heap, my wife would ask if there was something dead in the back yard.
I think my chickens look forward to brew day as much as I do
I compost as well. I have never had problems with the smell, but then again my compost is in the far back of my yard…I’ve never asked the neighbor’s if they thought something died back there ;D. I’ve thought about making bread but never got around to it. I would be interested in hearing others that have used grains for bread etc…
i toss it on the compost. it usually stinks for about a day or two until it dries out a bit.
I dump mine on the Hunt Club property at the end of the road. Kind of gets back at those bastards from throwing beer cans all over the damn cove. ;D
don’t give them to your dogs - I think they get a visit from “Rheeah” if they eat too much - I’ve never tried it.
you can make them into bicuits for dogs, but I never got around to trying it.
compost
I dump mine at the woods line over the fence in the back of the property. When we brew at my buddies house we throw them in the trash can for BFI to pick up. I have never had a smell issue as I rake them to a thin layer and they dry up pretty quick. I am sure the wildlife loves it though. The only time I have an odor is when I forget to rinse out the shop vac as I use it to remove the grains from my mash tun.
Ha… I had a funny thought reading that. Is that a mash tun posing as a shop vac or a shop vac posing as a mash tun? ;D
LOL, no, just another essential tool in my brewery. My mash tun can be heavy (15 gallon keg) and it sits high for the short guy I am. Plus you have to wait for it to cool to handle it. I use the shop vac to suck out the grains as soon as I am done sparging and my boil has started. I can then start a recirculation cleaning of my system so all of that is done by the time my boil is done. After I chill my wort I have maybe 15 minutes of clean up and I am done for the day. My shop vac has some large wheels on it and I can roll it across the yard. No carrying. Works great for me.
yeah as long as they dry out you won’t have a problem. you want stink, leave them in your mash tun for 24 hours and then open it up and take a whiff. phew!
Yup, last time I forgot to spray out the shop vac I about hurled when I opened it. I am a paramedic that has smelled bodies in all states of decomposition. It ranks right up there with the worse.
that sounds about right. 
Mine go straight in the garbage. I put to two trash bags in a 5gal buct, and fill 'er up. Then out to the trash.
Dump it on my garden. It makes great black soil.
Mine get dumped in a pile in the backyard. I saved a cup full and made a loaf of treberbrot yesterday. That wad a hit with the wife and kids