when making whiskey (or beer) what is left of the barley?

Question

when making whiskey (or beer) what is left of the barley?

Jon

2015年9月12日 22:22

[Mod: distilling is normally off-topic here, however, this question could equally be about making beer, since the primary subject is mashing/sparging and spent grain, so I'm keeping this question open so long it doesn't touch on distilling.]

I have been reading about the whiskey making process, but I do not make it. From what I understand, in very basic terms, a barley soup is made, and the water is drained off. This water contains enzymes etc from the barley, and this water only content is fermented, and so on in the process.

While Im sure this is hardly accurate it may be a general approximation in layman terms. If there are fundamental errors of understanding, please correct me. But Im understanding that the actual barley kernals are separated from the mix before fermentation.

My question revolves around what is left of the barley after it is separated from the mixture. Are they whole? Do they melt into the water leaving just waste behind? Something else?

Does this leftover waste have a term I can look up to find more about?

Update: I am not looking for things to do with this waste.

Topic barley spent-grain homebrew

Category Mac

Carolyn · Accepted Answer · 2015年9月12日 22:22

Once the grain has been soaked and drained (usually 3x), and all the good stuff pulled out and separated into a liquid that is called the 'Wort', that excess grain is called the 'draff' and has proteins. They mix it will cattle feed and sell it to farmers.

Here is a great article I found on all the extra bits from a distillery. http://peakperspective.com/whisky-wise/whisky-co-products-the-extra-bits-bobs-part-1/

MalFet · Accepted Answer · 2013年2月22日 13:37

If you're looking for a more technical description, you want to look into the process of "mashing". Beer mashing and spirits mashing operate on essentially the same principles.

For a typical barley malt, roughly 80% of the mash by weight will be converted into sugars. In other words, if you mash with 10 pounds of malt, roughly 8 pounds will end up dissolved in your wort and 2 pounds will remain behind as solid chaff. Most of it is fibrous husk material.

Spent grain doesn't have much nutritional value for humans, but it is frequently fed to livestock. Many breweries burn it as fuel, as well.

Cleber Goncalves · Accepted Answer · 2013年2月22日 10:03

Since the process before distilling is basically the same as beer making, here is what happens:

You mill the barley and make your 'barley soup', the mash
You then drain the liquid from the soup (wort) and put that to ferment

Back on your soup kettle (mash tun) you are left with the barley kernels and husks. During the mash you extracted a (hopefully) large amount of the sugars from the kernels but some are still left behind as unconverted starches.

As far as I know, the term for that is 'spent grain'

when making whiskey (or beer) what is left of the barley?

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