Why is my spent grain smelling funky?

Last sunday we brewed a couple of black porter batches with my buddies and we used a generous amount of roasted barley with pilsen malt. We put it into the frigde as soon as we finished mashing, as we did the brewday before.

I have arranged with a local bakery to give them my spent grain for them to bake over a few days. The problem is that last time our spent grain smelled nice all the time (Amber with caramel malt, pilsen and a bit of brown malt) but now it has a funky smell all over it (brown, chocolate malt, roasted barley and pilsen). Today, when I opened the bag to inspect it, it smelled alright but when you pry it arount the funky smell comes up.

I made some malt cake a cuple days ago and it was alright. I'm afraid to deliver this spent grain now because of the smell. I tested a little sample in the oven and I kindof hint the smell comes from some natural compound in the roasted barley, but that's just a hunch.

I will test it tomorrow morning by baking malt cake again and see if it tastes good, or whatever.

Any idea why it smells weird this time?

Topic spent-grain malt homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

Spent grain goes bad fast, and when it goes bad, it's bad. And not a little bad. bad.

not even bad in fact.

bad

I've used spent grains in compost for a long time and if you don't mix it in while it's still hot (or if you're unlucky enough to leave it sitting for a few hours or - god forbid - days) you will face a soul-crushing, stomach-lurching, ramped-up-bile-producing foulness the likes of which you'll never hope to encounter again.

That said, it's great for making bread with :p However you need to follow some basic protocols. here's a good guide. The most important thing is squeezing out the liquid, and if possible, spreading it out on a clean tarp or something so it dries/cools quickly before you throw it in the freezer (freezer, NOT fridge). Think about it - hot, wet, full of pre-processed sugar...what better environment could there be for bacteria? If you're brewing on a large scale (or just have a lot of grain), dip out a few scoops to save for making bread with (alternately you can use it to make sponge for bread while it's still warm, but since you're not actually making the bread you won't want to do this) and use the rest for compost.

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