June 23, 2024 - 5:51pm
Brewers barley flour
I saw this the other day at our local Walmart of all places. The ingredients list says it is "spent grain flour (barley, wheat, and rye").
Intriguing..... How would it best be used? In rye breads, or ?? And how much?
Mary
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I had to look this up:
What is Spent Grain Flour?Spent grains are the malts and other grains which remain in the mash kettle after the last sparge, or said simply - the main by-product of brewing.
Spent grain flour is the product of dehydrating and milling (or grinding) spent grains.
(Article continues...)
https://www.craftbeering.com/how-to-make-spent-grain-flour/
Article from another brewer - referencing a scholarly study. The article covers the cogent points of the study. NICE article!
https://beerswithmandy.com/beer-everything-blog/how-to-make-spent-grain-flour-that-you-can-actually-bake-with
Thanks for all your research on this! Fwiw, the link on this one doesn't work. Still, I got the overall gist of things from the rest of them.
OK, that's wierd. It (obviously) worked the other day. Now I'm getting the same error. Here's the link in the WayBack Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20221007131336/https://beerswithmandy.com/beer-everything-blog/how-to-make-spent-grain-flour-that-you-can-actually-bake-with
It's a nice, approachable article.
NIH Study suggests no more than 10-15% Baker's Percentage (as part of the base Baker's 100%) "as adding a higher quantity leads to a decrease in volume, affects the taste and aroma and changes the rheological properties."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10094003/
This one is informative... Still doubt I will try it any time soon though. My bake list is already too long, lol.
From the article, uses specific to bread:
High fiber content (health benefit);
Increased mineral content;
Influences the rheological and pasting properties of dough;
The biaxial extensional viscosity is significantly higher;
The strain-hardening index decreases with increasing quantities of flour substitution;
Reduces the uniaxial extensibility, while the storage modulus, G″, increases;
Addition of spent grain increases the composition/nutritional properties;
The color of bread turned from light cream to brown;
Water absorption increases with the quantity of spent grain;
Increased crumb firmness;
Increased antioxidant content.
Bread obtained from fermented spent grain
Bacteriostatic function (the shelf life of bread increases).
Nice video by a brewer/baker. The spent grain is kept whole and incorporated as a soaker. About 7 minutes. (with a brief visit from a cute kid.)
https://youtu.be/-i3f3N_-ox8?si=McCwscFSi0RHxapz
You could try using it as a non diastatic malt in a rye bread
You can actually use flour made from malted barley, the kind used in brewing beer, in all sorts of baked goods. White bread, rolls, cookies, and even some pies and tarts can benefit from a bit of this specialty flour.
Spent grains are used for cattle food in the UK - plenty of cellulose and husk left, but not much starch. They are literally spent.
As a retired Brewer, I never understand the fascination some bakers have with them. There are lots of interesting grains to try before I would consider bothering with spent grains.
Lance
I've long wondered about that very thing. I didn't get any, it was more of a head tilt (picture your favorite dog trying to figure out what you're saying) kind of thing.... As in "what on earth, and why is Walmart selling this?" Someone took the time to dry > mill it into flour, so there must be some application. Then I wondered about what Abe mentioned, in lieu of non diastatic malt or something similar. I often like to experiment, but think I might give this one a pass.
And chicken food, and compost, and....
A couple of the articles Iinked to listed how Spent Grains were traditionally used, and how large brewers are attempting to (a) monetize the waste and (b) actually use the grains for something useful rather than dumping them.
There's supposed to be a lot of fiber (WOEFULLY missing in most US diets), good flavor, and texture. What's missing is gluten, so it's a heavy add-in.
It can serve a purpose if used mindfully, similar to Rye Flour, Chia, flax, and bran - all things we cheerfully add to our recipes now. (Rye Flour is also often used only for fodder - whichis such a shame, but it DOES present a fair number of challenges to the baker.)