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Disposing of spent mash?


Chrismass

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Heres a question that I have found almost no documentation on. Disposing of spent mash must have some type of protocol to it instead of just dumping it down the sewer/drain. However my thougts are if there is no protocol that would make sense as well. The spent mash may have only a few %ABV left in it which would quickly dissapate when dumped into the sewer. Also some yeast and left over fermentation would not really destroy wildlife as we know it. Does anyone have any idea of what the proper protocol would be? Or will it vary by county etc?

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You will never be allowed to just dump it into a sewer system. It will increase the BOD in the waste stream and if your local sewer company is using a lagoon system it is even worse. You will have to haul it away or give or sell to any local farmer as feed. Coop

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There lies why I opened a new topic, I forgot to add this and that is the composition of my mash. My mash is a composition of 50/50 Cane Sugar and Beet Sugar. My spent mash will be worthless to farmers as it only ends up having the yeast in the bottom. Sorry that I neglected to add this.

Thanks,

Chris

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That sounds excellent, hopefully they'll allow that. .03 or even double that would be completely justifiable. My time is much better spent doing more important tasks. Thank you very much, with the towns around here scraping for nickles and dimes I'm sure they'll be up for that or something similar.

Thanks much,

Chris

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One distiller I questioned on this topic said they are allowed to dump there mash down the drain by law. He's in a major city so maybe they can more readily handle it. Everyone else that I've asked said they gave it to farmers. One distiller had a truck and tank, both supplied by the farmer, sitting on site. They put everything from the mash to the rinse from the still in the tank. The farmer picked it up a couple of times a week. Put an ad on Craig's list and see if you get any responses.

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I have been thinking about this a little bit myself. One question I have is does anyone know of breweries in a big city getting together to build a dry house? Craft distillers are too small I would think by themselves to do this, but I think proliferation of craft breweries by themselves or with some craft distillers in a big city could do some sort of co-op to get this done. I saw a mention of this on pro bono thinking (http://www.probonothinking.org/15000lbs-of-free-spent-grain/) as a solution for Half Acre (Chicago craft brewer). My thought is that in a city like Chicago, a dry house could probably be run at break even or better and funded by all the local participants whereas most producers can't really send spent grains to a farmer because they are all too far away. Lots of challenges to this idea, especially for craft distillers potentially having very different and inconsistent grain bills, but it would be a huge environmental benefit and perhaps without much cost. Last time I did the bourbon trail I believe Buffalo Trace said their dry house was making money. You might even be able to do an anaerobic digester as fuel for your heater...In any case, is anyone aware of any cooperatives doing something like this?

Cheers,

Jeff

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Very interesting that it has protein in it. My spent mash would have no protein, because my base is cane sugar and beet sugar. I'll have to have mine analyzed, and building a dry house is something that I would be able to contribute to. However there are no other distilleries within 50 miles of my location so that is out of the question. So far it looks like I should have no problem disposing of it in the normal sewer lines, and I should know for sure come monday.

Chris

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Very interesting that it has protein in it. My spent mash would have no protein, because my base is cane sugar and beet sugar. I'll have to have mine analyzed, and building a dry house is something that I would be able to contribute to.

Chris

If it has yeast in it, it has protein. Yeast is mostly protein. If your wash is just sugar, you had to add nitrogen in some form as a nutrient for the yeast. You did that because they synthesize proteins from the carbohydrates and the nitrogen.
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I didn't realize that yeast does have protein, then the means it does have worth. Exactly why I am happy I joined this forum, learning things I didn't know before. I haven't yet calculated the left over weight of yeast that will remain. Out of curiosity does anyone know exactly how the farmers use or process it? Feedstock?

Chris

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This is how I use my spent grain. It is fairly solid because I lauter. I cart it in a trailer and shovel it onto the ground for my cattle to eat.

My sheep also get some but I put it into a trough so they can't walk on it

http://youtu.be/m0lRgYO7exU

100%

100% I haven't done this before so fingers crossed this youtube link works

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  • 7 months later...

Just finished experimenting with a dairy operation and a laying operation (that's eggs to you and me). Dairy guys were loving it mixed with cut grass (watch that protein, too much and they gets the bloat). The laying operation, on the other hand, loved it even more. Birds went from laying 1 egg every other day (cageless free-roamers) to one a day. Dat's where all the protein goes for them. Amazing. We've been getting more eggs than our crew can eat.

Oh, and they're making bread with what's left over. It's freaking good, but dense as hell. Had to be lightened with baking soda, but it made great loaves, pancakes and now french toast! We're in the breakfast business, as it seems.

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I just made a loaf of bread from my spent mash yesterday. Lightened it up with some very finely gristed rye and a bit of white flour. Just had a piece for my lunch.

A nearby distillery is using some of their spent mash in pizza bases.

As I said in a previous post, I feed spent mash to my livestock. Been fattening some lambs with it. Killed some of the lambs recently to eat, and trimmed the excess fat.

Added the fat to the biofuelfuel for the hot water boiler for mashing.

That is re-re-cycling

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  • 2 months later...

Oh, and they're making bread with what's left over. It's freaking good, but dense as hell. Had to be lightened with baking soda, but it made great loaves, pancakes and now french toast! We're in the breakfast business, as it seems.

The French toast sounds good. I've mostly made bread for my family to eat out of my spent mash. It's good as bread bowls for soup. Does anybody know about the legalities of doing similar as a menu item for a restaurant?

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