Making pizza from spent grains

Jul 5, 2014

Using spent grains from our Dark-eyed Junco Imperial Stout that was brewed on Mar 30, 2014.

Making pizza

On brew day, I placed some of the spent grains in two, thick, air-tight, plastic containers, and I placed the containers in the freezer on brew day.

A few weeks later, I pulled one of the containers from the freezer and dried the grains over about two or three day period. The soaked grains take a while to dry. I tried placing the grains in the oven for a while, but that made them wet and hot.

After the grains finally dried, I placed them into an air-tight container and placed the container in the refrigerator.

On July 5, I finally decided to try using the grains in a pizza recipe.

First, I ground some grains in our Vitamix. I pulverized the grains into a powder, but I used the Vitamix for under 30 seconds. Next time, grind for nearly a minute, since I found some twiggy-like aspects in the grains. So the spent grains are as powder as I would prefer.

The recipe:

• 110 g of spent grains, pulverized into mostly powder.
• 550 g of all-purpose flower
• 455 g of water (frig temp)
• 13 g of fine-grain sea salt
• 4 g dry active instant yeast

After grinding the spent grains, the powdery mixture was colored a dark brown.

After mixing all the dry ingredients, the mixture had the color of buckwheat flour. It was colored a medium grey.

After adding water, the mixture became a dark grey color.

I could have used more water, prob 500 g. The initial mixture produced a stiff dough. This may not ferment nor proof very puffy, and it may be difficult to stretch.

No gluten, of course, in these spent grains.

Maybe next time, try only 55 g of spent grains.