It’s brew day at Henderson Brewing Company in Toronto’s west end. The open door of a large stainless steel tank releases swirls of steam. The golden-coloured liquid that will become beer has already been transferred into a brew kettle. It’s the malted barley left over from the beer-making process that comes spilling out.

It’s a lot of byproduct. But Henderson and other small craft breweries are making sure it doesn’t go to waste. For the most part, spent grain is repurposed as animal feed or compost, but more recently it is being used to make dog biscuits, baked goods and for mulch.

“Its potential is unlimited,” says Steve Himel, co-founder and general manager of Henderson in the Junction Triangle. “We take out what we want and pass it on to someone else who takes out what they want. And we both end up getting what we need.”

But passing on spent grain — even giving it away — isn’t always easy.

Spent grain accounts for about 85 per cent of the total brewing byproduct. Roughly 175 kilograms of grain is used to make 1,000 litres of beer, or 120 cases of 24-bottles. Crushed malted barley is mixed with hot water to convert the starch into a sugary liquid. The grain is separated out and the liquid becomes the brewing water, which is boiled, flavoured with hops and fermented into beer.

Big breweries that have thousands of tonnes of spent grains left over from the brew every day either sell it or give it to farmers. It is a nutritious low-sugar, high-fibre animal feed. But small breweries, especially those in downtown Toronto, don’t have enough to make it worthwhile for a farmer to make the trek into the city.

Henderson pays a food processing company to pick up about 8,000 kilograms of spent grain each week and deliver it to farmers for free. He keeps a supply on hand to make dog treats and gives some to a nearby restaurant that is experimenting with it in bread and pizza dough.

“We’re a 21st century business and everyone on our team has grown up in a world where reduce, reuse and recycle is a way of life,” says Himel. “We were trying to think of creative ways to use this byproduct, which isn’t really waste.”

What to do with spent grain is “always an issue,” says Ken Woods, a board member of Ontario Craft Brewers, which represents about 75 brewers in the province. Woods, who is also president and owner of Black Oak Brewing Company in Etobicoke, knows craft brewers who use it as mulch in the garden, saying, “It’s fairly good for laying all over the flower beds.”

Woods pays for it to be hauled away as animal feed.

“Everybody thinks there’s still lots of booze in there, but we get all the important stuff so you won’t be getting any tippy cows or drunk pigs rolling around,” he chuckles.

Left Field Brewery, in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood, is also too small to merit farmers coming and getting it and so it sends most of its grain to a compost site.

“We’re trying to find alternate uses here in the city,” co-founder Mandie Murphy says. Left Field has partnered with dog biscuit makers, most notably Tom&Sawyer, a high-end healthy pet food manufacturer, a few blocks away.

“We just give it to them,” Murphy says. “It’s nice to work with another community-based company. And, the dogs love (the biscuits).”

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Rural craft brewers may have an easier time establishing a direct relationship with farmers, nonetheless they too are finding creative uses for spent grain.

Sawdust City Brewing Company in Gravenhurst, Ont., gives most of its grain to local farmers for animal feed. But some is also used as an additive to the soil, similar to the way manure is mixed in with soil.

“The nitrogen from the spent grains is a key ingredient to grow lush greens so it is a great method for boosting garden nutrients, especially up here in Muskoka where the soil is notoriously challenging,” the brewery’s marketing co-ordinator Brittany Williams says.

The restaurant at Brimstone Brewing Company in Ridgeway, Ont., uses pork and eggs from farmers that have fed the pigs and chickens with the brewer’s own spent grain. Its signature dish is Spent Grain Pretzel Bites, made of 50-per-cent spent grain and boiled in beer.

Working with the grain can be challenging, Brimstone chef Matt MacGregor says. It has to be properly dried and ground into a flour. And it should be used immediately following the brew process because it sours in six to eight hours, becoming pungent.

“We try to throw in (spent grain) wherever we can,” says MacGregor, who uses it in pasta and in crusts for chicken wings, pork and salmon. “You’ll get different flavour profiles, based on what they brew.”

MacLean’s Ales Inc. in Hanover, Ont., gives some of its spent grain to Brewhaus Grains, in Owen Sound, Ont., where owners Keventh Rodriguez and Myles Cummings are making bread, tortillas and granola bars.

“Spent grains are so versatile — the sky is the limit,” says Rodriguez, noting it adds a nutty flavour. “That’s why we’re so excited.”

While most craft breweries are paying to remove this byproduct, certified organic brewery Beau’s Brewing Company in Vankleek Hill, Ont., has found its spent grains are a hot commodity among organic farmers who will pay for it.

“We’re able to offset the cost of the grains, by giving them this second life,” communications director Jen Beauchesne says.

In fact the farmer who initially bought Beau’s grain became so overwhelmed with the volume she started a business collecting and selling the organic grain to other farmers.

“(It’s) pretty amazing really, and kind of cool, that our success spawned someone else’s,” Beauchesne says.

Zero Waste is an occasional series.