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Head brewer Tim Butler at Empire Brewing Co. is Syracuse removes spent grain from a tank at the Armory Square brewpub. The brewery supplies those grains to local farmers, who use it to feed livestock. Proposed new FDA rules may end that practice.

(David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com)

It seems to be a perfect match.

Brewers need a way to dispose of the wet and mushy grains that are a byproduct of making beer. Farmers are looking for inexpensive but healthful feed for their livestock.

So breweries across the country -- including those here in Central New York -- donate their used grains to local farmers. It's free: The farmers just stop by the breweries and cart the stuff away, usually in large plastic containers.

It's a classic example of reuse and recycling, but a provision in the proposed federal Food Safety Modernization Act might bring it to an end.

The proposed rule would require brewers to dry the grains out and package them so they can't be contaminated by human contact. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the change is designed to "provide greater assurance that animal food is safe and will not cause illness or injury to animals or humans."

But the change would require time, labor, packaging, record-keeping and maybe even equipment that the brewers say they can't afford. And brewers argue there's no evidence the current practice is unsafe.

"If we had to do all that, then we'd just dump it in a landfill," said Marc Rubenstein of Middle Ages Brewing Co. in Syracuse. "And that would be a shame because it's perfect for the farmers the way it is now."

The grains -- primarily barley but also sometimes wheat or oats -- are soaked in hot water during the part of the brewing process called mashing. The resulting liquid runoff becomes beer after fermentation.

The solids that are left over -- called "spent grains" -- have no further use at the brewery.

"It's a waste product for us," said Matt Whalen, brewer and co-owner of Good Nature Brewing Co. in Hamilton. "But the farmers love it and the fact that it's wet, because that's better for the animals. It provides hydration."

Whalen estimates the cost to follow the proposed rule change would be about $12 per barrel (31 gallons). "That would jack up the cost to the consumer, if we did it," he said.



Pat Dayger, whose family runs a dairy farm in Central Square, routinely picks up 2,000-pound tubs filled with spent grains from Middle Ages.

"It really helps with the milk production," Dayger said. "It's a supplement to the dry grain feed that really works."

Dayger said it costs her nothing more than the gas it takes to get to the brewery. "They (the brewery) shovel it into the tubs, we pick it up and then it goes to the cows," she said.

She's never encountered any health issues from the spent grain .

Now, brewers across the country -- big and small -- have united in an effort to persuade the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to back off on the proposed change. The FDA's public comment period on the proposal ends Monday.

The Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association created a form letter for brewers to sign and send to their elected representatives. The cover letter from association director Paul Gatza notes, in part: "There is no evidence that breweries' spent grains as currently handled are causing any hazards to animals or humans, yet the proposed rules create a burdensome set of regulations to solve a problem that doesn't exist."

"The use of spent grain by farmers is a low-risk activity that has been mutually beneficial to brewers and farmers for decades," the letter itself reads. "The alternative is to send the spent grain to landfills, wasting a reliable food source for farm animals and triggering a significant economic and environmental cost."

The New York State Brewers Association is also opposed to the change.

Dayger said she hopes the FDA reconsiders the proposal.

"I'd hate to lose it because it makes my cows happy," she said. "And when the cows are happy, they produce a lot of milk."