Brewers dispose of spent grain; farmers use it for feed, in soil

Cody Smith doesn’t have to worry about how he will feed his cows on his Plain City farm.

Instead of buying feed in bulk from a store, he gives his breeding cows spent grain from breweries.

Spent grain is the malt and grain that remain after most of the sugars, proteins and nutrients have been removed in the brewing process. It can constitute as much as 85% of a brewery’s total byproduct, according to craftbeer.com.

Collin Castore, co-founder of Seventh Son Brewery, 1101 N. 4th St. in Italian Village, has a silo designated for spent grain. Once a week, Smith loads 8,000 to 12,000 pounds of the grain into his semitrailer and hauls it home.

“We wouldn’t have anywhere to put it,” Castore said. “It’s a large amount of non-reusable matter for us, and it just takes up space.”

Smith, a member of the Bluescreek Farm Meats family, has been picking up Seventh Son’s spent grain for seven years. He said he feeds it to his breeding cattle to help them “bulk up” and get an energy boost, especially in the winter.

Jamie Johnson, general manager of Bluescreek and Smith’s sister, said the farm had to purchase the semitrailer to accommodate the grain. While the grain is free, there are transportation costs.

“We’ve always been open to reuse things and have as little waste as possible,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of extra work on our end, but we don’t mind.”

Columbus Brewing Company, 2555 Harrison Road in Valleyview, also gives its spent grain to farmers, said Eric Bean, company president. He said the company produces 6,000 to 8,000 pounds of spent grain per day.

Bean said the practice doesn’t get a lot of attention, but giving spent grain to farmers is common.

“This is what everyone does,” Bean said. “It’s a byproduct that makes for good feed for the animals, and for us to do anything else with it would be an expense to the brewing process.”