beer mash in the compost pile?

We have a brewery in our town and I am wondering how I can use the mash in the compost pile. Would it be the green or the brown material?

I think it would be a green. Sounds good either way.

Ok, thanks Dean.

I agree with DeanW.

The mash is just the malted (sprouted and then roasted) barley which has been steeped in water to extract the sugars; the proteins are left in the grain (it would make the beer cloudy) so it's a good source of nitrogen - the "green" stuff.

I looked this up because I'm interested in compost (duh) and beer too : )

If you pile it up, you might get anerobic bacteria which smell, but spread it out thinnish and cover with some soil and it should be OK.

There are quite a few municipalities and private companies across the country which compost brewery wastes.

decomposes really fast! ...and it does bring some bugs around so, cover with leaves

the boyfriend brews his own, we throw them in all the time:)

Ok great. I haven't talked to the owner yet, but we already know them, so I hope they'll let me have some. We have a wood shop and we are trying to compost some our sawdust. So this should help a lot. Should make it cook faster I hope. There's no way we can compost all the sawdust we make, but atleast we can make some compost for us. The rest we are going to take to somebody who makes compost to sell. Don't want it to wind up in the dump.

That would be a pretty good mix I'm sure.....wish you lived closer :)

You can also make bokashi out of these material and skip the entire composting process without any odor.

Mash heats up real fast and is very wet. The heat process results in loss of Nitrogen and Carbon in the forms of NH3 and CH4 and CO2. If you would like to preserve the nutrient value of this material, you would be much better off making the bokashi (fermenting it and some other high carbon material with EM1). This material is also really good food for animals...kind of like silage. The nice thing is it only takes about two weeks to make bokashi, so it is a fast process.

Emeric, sorry but my chemistry background is really pathetic. What is EM1? And how do you make bokashi? Do you need sawdust to make it? The only animals we have are cats, and somehow I don't see them eating sawdust.:) I do have lots of flower beds, including a really large one and 2 smaller ones at the shop, which is where the sawdust is. Wish I could use this dust for mulch too, but I know that's not a good idea.

Tropicana, if you're in need of sawdust, I wish you lived closer too.:)

I'd let it sit awhile and use it for mulch...that might be wrong but there's never enough leaves for mulching here :)

'Well. leaves is not something I am short of here. We have 3 huge trees and no time for raking. We have a mulching lawn mower, but DH hates to cut the grass and there's no grass to cut right now anyway since it's not growing. Our neighbors also have leaves which they rake into the street for the city to pick up. I will never understand why people do that. Sometimes we use the leaf blower to blow them into the beds for mulch, but somehow they never make it to the compost pile. At the shop however, there are no trees except for the ones we just planted.

Sawdust makes terrible mulch. It sticks together and doesn't let water in. And it uses too much nitrogen I guess when it eventually breaks down.

There is a forum topic on Bokashi and another on EM1. Here is the one on bokashi: Bokahihttp://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/796403/

EM is a microbial product.
NH3 is ammonia
CH4 is methane
CO2 is carbon dioxide.

Beer is yummy. :+)
Spent grains smell good.

I would use something like hay, oats, or some other feed ingredient to dry out the mash to make it into feed for animals.

Bokashi can be used as a mulch. It also makes some great worm food.

I would use ground leaves as the extra carbon source.

I'm so stubborn...I thought maybe if you mixed it with grass clippings they'd kinda balance each other out??

....even if you couldn't mulch with it you'd have stuff for packing and storing bulbs in for winter :)

You mean I can use bokashi instead of coffee grounds to mix into the soil around my roses and hostas?

I tried that link but I couldn't open it. Firefox couldn't open it because the "program isn't associated with any program". I think what it said.

lol Oh yes, we could supply a couple of online nurseries with all the sawdust they would need. I wish there were some close by. I did have some cannas in the pond that we pulled out for the winter and put in the gh. I wanted to get them out of their pots and put them in sawdust, but there just wasn't enough time. Fall is the busiest time of year for us every year and this year we were also trying to build the new shop and move into it.

Yes, bokashi (Japanese for fermented organic matter) can be used as a mulch. You can make it with just about any dried plant material.

I saw something today about the hyperlinks not working Dave's. If you go to the composting forum and look for: Bokashi (fermented food/garden waste) Composting Discussion, you can go there.

Bokashi is kind of a new way to think about compost... It is actually an ancient form of waste recycling, but new to a lot of people.

I'll do that Emeric. Thanks.

The other benefit of the brewery waste is that it is loaded with yeast and enzymes. As the material ferments, vitamins are produced.

It is good stuff and, if you like beer, it smells like a bit batch of beer is brewing in the yard... I love the smell of hops in the ...morning, no, afternoon... um... that didn't come out right....

I am not sure where you are in Texas, but I do know that the soil in lots of the state is pretty hard...not quite as hard as here in Tucson, but there is hardpan in parts of the state. The extra organic material will provide a nice home for the microbes.

lol, yes I love beer too, but especially micro brewery beer. It reminds me of the beer we drank in Germany. Hmmmmm, good. I haven't had a chance to ask them yet for the mash. I'm just hoping they'll give me some. If I can't get the mash, would some beer help?

We are in the hill country. Caliche is every where. The soil where I need to do this composting is very sandy though. There is caliche under it. We had a lot of good soil and compost added to it, but that only goes down about a foot.

Thanks for telling me about that thread.:)

pour one out for your homeys--lol (I don't know if anyone will get that)

can't see how beer would hurt, but between living in the Texas sun and slug control, you might want to keep the beer and go for the mash with the brewery so closeby. More stuff to break down :)

Most breweries are happy to give you stuff. Depending on how large they are, they may warn you that you'll need a big truck. One problem transporting it is that it is very wet. The best way to transport then is to use open-top 55 gallon drums and use a good sized pick up truck.

I like big beers. One of my favorite breweries is Stone out of Escondido. Another is Moylan's. Their stuff is typically in the 8% range. Really strong IPA like Ruination (Stone) or Hopsicle (Moylan's). There is a new one I found out of Durango called Decadent Ale: Imperial IPA. I also make my own...with EM1 added, of course.

A beer won't hurt when added to the soil. It actually has about 3x the antioxidants of wine. Microbrews would be best because state laws do not require beer sold within state lines to be pasteurized. All beer that travels over state lines must be pasteurized, killing the remaining microbial activity.

Microbes, especially lactic acid bacteria (not used in making beer), are known to break up mineralized (rocky) soil or hardpan. The organic component is there to provide some extra protection (home and food) for the microbes and helps to maintain moisture. This gives the microbes time to work on the minerals, making them bio-available for plants' use.

Well, I just talked to somebody at the brewery and they said they have a contract with a local farmer. I have to call back on Monday and talk to the brew master. Maybe I can work a deal with the farmer. How much should I expect to need to compost a 35 gallon can of sawdust? I expect to spray with EM1 also.

Since I am hypoglycemic, I am not supposed to drink much alcohol of any kind, but once in a while I drink the beer at this microbrewery. They have something called Enchanted Rock Red Ale that's really good. There are others that are OK if they don't have that one.

You will probably need 2 to three times mash to sawdust.

What is the name of the brewery? I have a friend who used to live in San Antonio. I will see if she can get me some. She comes to Tucson to see her grandparents once or twice a year.

It's called the Fredericksburg Brewery.

If I'm using the rice bran stuff from the website and adding dried leaves and yard trimmings to the sawdust, how much rice bran and EM1 do I use?

Hi Mary Lee,
I would not take the rice bran stuff and the EM1 together to make this. Think of bokashi as a word defined as "fermented organic material". Any organic material can be made into bokashi with EM1 and molasses and water. You'd be best off to save the money and use just EM1 and molasses to make the mash, sawdust, leaves, etc., into bokashi.

The rice bran stuff, EM1 Rice Bran Bokashi, is best for use in the buckets since it is fine and can coat the food wastes easily. It is also really good to add to potting soil mixes and to kitty litter.

I generally make kitty litter out of wheat bran since a 50# bag costs between $10 and $15. It is fluffy, so it lasts a long time.

Aaaaah. Thanks, I didn't understand that part for sure. I kind of suspected that it might work that way. Well that makes a lot more sense and a lot more affordable. Thanks very much. I'm really excited about this and can't wait to get started. I don't know when Whole Foods is going to get any in, so I'll have to order it.

Question about kitty litter. Does it clump up around the pile the cat leaves like Fresh Step and those other things do?

No clumping like those commercial litters.
What is cool is that you can use the litter in flower beds and it all breaks down pretty fast. It makes for a cheap fertilizer for sure.

If I only use EM1, molasses, water, sawdust and leaves can I still do this in the 35 gallon trash can?

Yes. The most important thing is to make sure it is not too wet and that it can be air tight. It is better to err on the side of being too dry. Just make sure it is not dripping wet. Squeeze into a ball. If it hold form and there is no extra liquid coming out, you will be fine.

You may want to line the trash can with a big garbage bag and then tie it/fold it over after you fill it.

How much EM1 should I need? As I understand it I have to put 1 cup EM1, molasses and water in a bucket and let it ferment for a week or so, so I want to be sure I make up enough of it.

That is activation.
Bokashi is similar, but you are making more of a dry product. I generally use more EM1 and molasses than the recipes we have on our site. So, I tend to go with 1 cup of EM1, 1 cup of molasses, and 3 gallons of water for 50# wheat bran.

Because saw dust won't suck up as much liquid as bran, you should expect to use less water... For a 35-gallon barrel, you'll likely use 2 cups of EM1 and molasses and 5-10 gallons of water. I haven't done it, so I am not totally sure (it is a matter of weight and volume and moisture) how much of each to use. The water is going to be the biggest variable in this mix.

Thanks Eric. I ordered it last Fri, so I'm really hoping to get it by the end of this week.