Spent Grain Bread

We’ve just finished making the Rushton Imperial Stout, and are sitting down feeling good about a creative day. It was a massive brew, and we ended up using both the borrowed mash tun and our own mash tun.

9.2 kg of grain!

Running off from TWO mash tuns

When we’d finished mashing I started scooping out the masses of spent grain, which tasted rather sweet compared to our usual brews. This is because the beer is very strong so we didn’t want to let it down too much by sparging a lot (washing the grains with hot water), so we ended up with some of the sugar left behind in the grain.

Bread! Surely some of the spent grain would make an interesting loaf of bread? I pulled out the breadmaker and dumped in a large scoop of grain – probably about 200g (so a drop in the ocean). I also added about 350g of white bread flour and the usual yeast, salt and fat. No sugar – I reckoned the grains were sweet enough anyway.

The result is highly dark (despite only white bread flour), very doughy and (eaten still hot with butter) utterly delicious!

Rushton Imperial Stout

I know we try to avoid puns as much as possible in our beer names, but I couldn’t resist this one! (OK, so actually there have been a few puns: Bohemian Wrenbury, Wheat Nancy, Knutsford Brown Ale, Audlem Unusual. So this one joins a long tradition of puns at Cheshire Peaks).

Anyway, for those that don’t know, Russian Imperial Stout is a beer style that takes stout to extremes – as big, rich and bold as a stout can be. They are usually about 9% ABV and highly bitter, then bottled and matured for at least a year. You may have had Courage Russian Imperial Stout – this is the classic. It’s something of an acquired taste, being so dark and roasty. I remember it being rather like drinking burnt toast.

So why now? Well we’ve just made a couple of lighter beers: An “English Pale Ale” (based on Marston’s EPA) and a southern brown ale (very malty and low bitterness, a bit like Mann’s Original Brown Ale). This has left us with a huge yeast cake, which will be ideal for fermenting such a big beer as a Russian Imperial Stout.

There’s a slight problem however. The malt bill is huge! To achieve 8.5% it requires about 9.2kg of malt. (82.7% Maris Otter, 6.5% Roast Barley, 4.3% Special B, 2.2% CaraMunich, 2.2% Chocolate, 2.2% Pale Chocolate). Way back, we made our own mash tun out of a freezer box, and we’ve found that this can hold no more than 5.5kg of grain. So we’ve borrowed our friend Andy’s larger mash tun (also a freezer box, but a commercial one from Brupaks) – this, he says, will hold up to 10kg of grain.

Talking of grain, we have neighbours that keep a few chickens down the road. We’ve tried them out with a bit of the spent grains recently, and they seem to love it. So they won’t be going hungry after Monday’s brew day.

Giving away beer

I have recently discovered a true joy in life: giving away something that I have made to friends. I don’t make beer to save money, nor because I particularly need lots of beer to drink; I make beer because I enjoy the process and the satisfaction of creating something. So to be able to share it with friends just adds to the enjoyment of the whole process.

I’ve recently given away bottles of the Audlem Smoky and Coole Pilate to John, Harry, Simon, Steve, Bruce and Ernie.

I had some lovely feedback from John (and I know he reads this blog), so I thought I’d share some of it with you.

“Wow. Loved them both. Neither would appear in my list of "normal tipple of choice" but that said, I really did enjoy them. The lager was very well gassed and sparkled quite merrily on pouring. The fizz didn't last much past halfway - I don't know how the commercial breweries manage to keep a drink sparkling to the bottom of the glass but there must be a trick to it - but the flavour was delightfully fresh and distinctively lagerish, although to my palate it also had echoes of a pale ale.

“The Audlem Smokey was a revelation… I wouldn't want more than one glass on any one occasion, but as a sipping beer on a Friday night (when I drank them both) it was near perfect.”

Cheers John! Glad you enjoyed them!