Eat Beer? Why Not!

Every time you have chugged down beer, do you wonder what goes into making the style of beer you enjoy? Do you ever wonder what happens to the ingredients after the beer is brewed?

Let’s start at the beginning

Barley, wheat, rice, corn, oat, rye are among the grains that are used to make cereals, and also beer.

The Brewing begins with the grains being mashed and discarded as spent grain. This spent grain is used as animal feed or is discarded. This called Brewers Spent Grain which after drying and milling is converted into a low carb, high protein flour.

You may want to know what is the difference between the Brewer's Spent Grain and the Distiller’s Grain. Brewer’s spent grain is obtained before the brewing process begins. Distillers grain is a byproduct of the distillation process.

Upcycling prevents wastage

The drying and reusing of spent grain supports the notion of a circular economy and prevents the wastage of the spent grain. As someone said, “We’re not just making new things out of old things, we’re creating something better — greater than the sum of its parts. We’re upcycling.”

usually the norm for the brewing industry.

In Bangalore for instance where there are almost 70 small and medium brewers, most owners either send the grain to be used as animal feed or still others just hand it over to the Municipality as part of the waste collection program which goes into landfills.

The fresh and wet spent grain has a short shelf-life, but if it is dried and milled into flour, which can be frozen, it can be preserved and upcycled into consumer goods like bakery products, handmade craft items.

What’s the purpose of “saving” these grains?

We ran a nutritional analysis and here’s what is so special about Spent Grain.. Because most of the carbohydrates are “spent” in the early stages of the brewing process, it is low in carbs and also has less than 0.1gm/100gm of gluten. It’s high protein and dietary fibre make it a potentially great source of nutrition.