Spent Grain Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Spent grain avocado toast with tomatoes and my favorite bread knife.

This recipe is a modified version of the The Master Recipe from The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, MD and Zoe Francois.

I highly recommend buying this book if you want to bake healthy bread using a no kneed method. It is wonderful and also has a favorite recipe of mine for Gluten free Boule. The gluten free boule gets raves when me make it whether you require gluten free or not.

Spent grains are what is left over when making beer. If you brew beer and love bread you should try to make this the day of your brewing. If you don’t make beer but know someone that does, have them save some for you. I think making it with the grains on the day of brewing is ideal, but you could put them in the refrigerator and make within a week. Just make sure the grains are at room temperature before using for your bread.

Ingredients

4 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

3 cups white bread flour

1/4 cup vital wheat gluten

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

2 cups spent grains at room temperature

4 cups of warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend or similar spice mix

Directions

Mix water and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk together. If you do not have a stand mixer, put it a large bowl and whisk. You can work dough by hand just takes a little more time.

Put flours, vital wheat gluten and salt in a bowl and whisk together. I use the container I store my dough in. Now add spent grains to flour mixture and mix well so there are no large clumps.

New Year's Day Curry Black Eyed Peas & Beer Pairings
Having lived in the south as a child, I fell in love with black eyed peas. I do not cook them enough, but try to honor the tradition of of including them in my New Years Day menu. I knew that it was a a tradition in the southern United States to eat them for good luck on the first day of the year, but after some quick research I discovered the trading goes back thousands of years. According to Wikipedia, the "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled circa 500 AD).
This year, rather than a traditional southern US dish, an Indian curry meal seemed appropriate with a little beer pairing test. On the menu was a recipe I adapted called Lobhia (blackeyed peas) Masala, Naan and three beers.
The three beers we tested were Anchor Summer Beer (Anchor Brewing Co.), Accumulation White IPA (New Belgium Brewing) and Inversion IPA (Deschutes Brewery). My favorite pairing with this dish was the Accumulation White IPA followed by the Inversion. Although it is often recommended a wheat beer pairs well with the curries, I did not find this to be the case.
Black Eyed Pea Masala
Ingredients
2 cans lobia/black eyed beans
½ inch piece ginger chopped
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 green chili chopped
½ cup chopped coriander leaves
1 can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1-2 cloves
½ inch piece of cinnamon
3-4 tsp Garam Masala powder
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
¼ tsp red chilli flakes
1 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp oil
salt
Instructions
In a large sauce pan, heat oil.
Add the whole spices, when they begin to sizzle add the onions.
Fry the onions till they become transparent. Now add the chopped ginger-garlic-chili. Fry till the raw smell of the ginger and garlic disappear. Add powder spices and cook about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes.
Now add the soaked black eyed peas, salt and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for 30 minutes. time to cook. Garnish Lobia Masala with chopped coriander leaves. Serve with rotis or rice.
Serving size: 4

It is winter in most parts of the northern hemisphere and a good time for easy comfort food. I had some grass fed short ribs in my freezer that seemed to be just right for a crockpot recipe.
I combined a few recipes and this is what I came up with.
Recommendations:

1. Do not use an IPA for this recipe. We used Fat Tire Amber Ale, but a dark, low hop beer or stout would be fine.
2. The gravy was a little heavy. I would either omit it or make a beer based demi-glace. I will post a recipe for this when I have created it.
3. Shorten the cooking time to 6 hours on low.

Recipe Ratings
To help our readers, we will now rate the recipes on a scale of 1 -5 for ease, time and flavor. The cost of the meal will be scored with $ symbols.
2 Recipe Ease (1 is easiest - 5 is most complicated)
5 Time to Cook (1 is less than 1 hour - 5 is all day)
3 Flavor (1 least desireable - 5 a favorite recipe I would make again tomorrow)
$ Cost ($ is less than $20 for 4 servings - $$$$ expensive, but worth the treat)
Crock Pot Beer-Braised Beef Short Ribs Ingredients: 1/4 c. all purpose flour 1/2 t. kosher or sea salt 1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper 1/2 t. smoked paprika 1/2 t. dried mustard 2.5 lbs. boneless beef short ribs 2 T. olive oil 1 large onion, sliced 4 carrots cut in 1 inch pieces. 2 cloves garlic, minced Couple of sprigs fresh thyme 12 oz. full-bodied beer (may substitute beef broth) 2 T. flour 3 T. water Directions: 1. Combine flour, salt, pepper, paprika and dried mustard. Dredge ribs in flour mixture and brown in olive oil in a medium skillet. 2. Place onions, carrots and garlic in the crock pot and top with browned ribs. Pour beer (or broth) over ribs. 3. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. 4. Remove ribs, carrots, thyme and onions and place on a serving platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together flour and water and add it to the beef juices in the crock pot. Set to high and stir until juices thicken into gravy. Pour gravy over ribs and serve.
Serve over garlic mashed potatoes and your favorite vegetable.

Harvest Box & Beer Recipe Contest My friend turned me on to this great, little organic farm here. The Rutiz Family Farms is located in Arroyo Grande, CA . Not only do they have a nice selection of local organic produce, they have a weekly harvest box program that does not require a subscription, just order midweek for pick up on Friday. If you live locally, check it out at www.rutizfarms.com. We are fortunate to live on the central coast of California where we have a farmer’s market daily in one of the surrounding towns. We have access to locally grown, fresh fruits and veggies 365 days a year. In addition to what is available to purchase, I do grow my own, but we get enough frost that I won’t have any home grown veggies until summer. As I cleaned my vegetables, Eric was putting a 5 gallon keg of Firestone Walker’s Honey Blonde Ale in to the kegerator. Firestone is about 50 miles north of us. Across the country there is a growing trend to buy local. I picked up my last week and the veggies are wonderful. As I cleaned my vegetables, Eric was putting a 5 gallon keg of Firestone Walker’s Honey Blonde Ale in to the kegerator. Wondering what I should make with my bounty spurred idea of a Harvest Box & Beer contest. Each week on Thursday, I will post the content of the harvest box. Submit your recipe entries by Sunday. The recipes must contain at least 1 ingredient from the harvest box (more points go to using more ingredients from the box) and use craft beer in the recipe or include a craft beer pairing. All beers must be produced in the USA for now. Simplicity is the key, we are looking for dishes anyone could prepare with little extra shopping or effort. Dishes may include meat. Yes, there will be prizes awarded each week. What makes a winner – TASTE, TASTE, TASTE. Link to enter contest: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MBSQTL5 Produce in the Harvest Box this week:
4/15/11 artichokes
broccoli
a bunch of green "spring" garlic
snap peas
a bag of salad mix
a bunch of carrots
tomatoes from the Salton Sea
a basket of "Jerry's Berries" strawberries I look forward to seeing what you all come up with. Good luck and Cheers!

You might be asking “How can these two go together?” When you brew beer, a byproduct is spent grain. Spent grain consists of malt and grain husks that remain after brewing. It is often used for livestock feed, making bread, growing mushrooms or just composted. It is very palatable and maintains nutritional value. So the other day I decided that rather than composting our leftover grain, I should make homemade horse cookies. After reviewing traditional horse treat recipes I set out to create my own.

If you are a homebrewer, you know that you have a lot of grain. Eric was brewing a 10 gallon batch of California steam beer, so I had 25 lbs. of wet grain at my disposal to play with. I will say the first batch was edible, my horse loved them, but the texture and moisture level was not quite right. The second batch I added some oatmeal to compensate for the wet grain and that helped dry out the cookies. Here is the final recipe: Spent Grain Horse Cookies 8 cups spent grain
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup molasses
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup canola oil Roll dough into a ball, flatten and place on a baking sheet. The cookies should be about 1 -1 ½ inches in diameter. I used parchment paper as I prefer to use it when baking cookies. Bake at 350’ for 20 minutes, turn over & bake for 15 -20 minutes. Makes approximately 90 cookies. Let cool and then serve. These also work well for dog treats, just make them a bit smaller. Unless you are brewing with corn, they are perfect for animals with allergies to corn. We live on the central coast of California, where it is foggy and damp at night. With this in mind, I baked the cookies so they were fairly crisp and dry in hopes that they will store well. After tasting these horse treats (ok so I prefer to taste the food I feed my animals and these were good), I am ready to create more recipes designed for human consumption. I would love to hear what you make with your spent grain. I have seen a lot of bread recipes online, does anyone cook something a little more exotic with their grain?

5/28/10 Whether you are a local or just passing through the area, plan on stopping by the Dunbar Brewing in Santa Margarita, California. The town of Santa Margarita is about 10 minutes north of San Luis Obispo off of highway 101. It is a quaint town with a population of less than 3000. There are a couple of places to eat, a handful of shops, wine tasting and of course Dunbar Brewing. You would miss Dunbar if you weren’t seriously looking for it. Look for the black and white sandwich sign in front of Ancient Peaks Wine Tasting. Dunbar is located in a new building on the west end of town, behind Ancient Peak Winery’s tasting room, but in the same building. Chris Chambers owner, brewer and host has been brewing and selling beers on the Central Coast for years. Previously he had a larger place in Los Osos. Chris has taken his experience of over 13 years of brewing to create his dream. I would have to classify the place as a micro-pub specializing in Irish style beer. He makes 3 barrel batches and they are only sold at his place. No bottling, no growlers, you must stop in to try his artisan beers. From the conversation we had, you can tell he is passionate about the quality of beer he serves. We played hooky the other day and took a field trip to check out Dunbar Brewing. The day we were there, he had the following on tap: Dunbar Brown Porter
Dunbar Oatmeal Stout
Sierra Nevada Summerfest
Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
Dogfish Head 90 min. IPA Although he does not sell flights, he was very generous allowing us to taste before we picked the pint for the afternoon. I had the Dunbar Brown Porter, while Eric had the Sierra Nevada Summerfest (Eric isn’t a big fan of porters and stouts). Great tasting beers brewed on site, a nice clean establishment, an impressive selection of craft beers and a very informative host made it worth the trip. I definitely recommend the place. Dunbar Brewing, SANTA MARGARITA
22720-A El Camino Real, Santa Margarita
(805) 704-9050 Link to Dunbar's Facebook Pagehttp://www.facebook.com/people/Dunbar-Brewing/100000164755392

My journey into the world of beer has become a little more focused. While Eric is brewing away, I am focussing on the nuances of pairing food with beer. Having spent many years concentrating on wine - this is a fun and challenging learning experience. Don’t get me wrong - I still love wine and think both beverages have their place at the table.

Each evening meal I try to find a suitable beer. This is not always easy as I am finding most of the lists and books are either too generic or too specific. Last night I do have to say I hit on a winner, homemade barbecue chicken pizza with a porter.

Simple BBQ Chicken Pizza

I made the pizza dough from a recipe in “The Greens Cookbook” by Deborah Madison. The Greens is a vegetarian restaurant in the SF Bay area. I hope they are not offended that I put chicken on it. The dough was excellent - thanks Robin for loaning me the book. You can use any dough you like.

The Toppings:

Trader Joe’s Barbecue Sauce

1 Cooked boneless/skinless chicken breast sliced

Thinly sliced red onion

Sliced mushrooms

Mozzarella cheese (or a blend of smoked & italian cheese)

Trader Joe’s sauce it is quite spicy, so if you prefer a mild red sauce mix 1/2 and 1/2 with another mellower sauce or substitute you favorite sauce.

If you use a pizza stone, pre-heat the stone for 30 minutes at 425’. Cook for 10-15 minutes.

Serve with a porter beer. We had on hand Black Marlin Porter from Ballast Point Brewing Company. I am not going to review the beer as there are way too many reviews/experts out there, but it did compliment the spice of the red barbecue sauce well. I would definitely try a porter with other meats barbecued or cooked with the a Texas style BBQ sauce.

Here is the info on the beer from the Ballast Point website

http://ballastpointbrewingandspirits.com/Beers.html

Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter

Black Marlin Porter (Dark, creamy, velvet smooth American style Porter we brewed this beer because we couldn't find it anywhere else!)

Porters are a style of beer that developed in London in the mid 1800's. It has a confusing and difficult to sort out their history. We know that some Porters began as a bartender's blend of three ales that would be ordered as "three strands." Breweries caught on to the popularity of the blend and began to brew beers having the characteristics of the blend. This popular beer became known as Porter, because railroad porters were its biggest fans.

A typical London workingman's meal of the time might have consisted of Porter, bread, and oysters (which were then considered to be lower class fare). As different styles of Porters developed, one of the most popular was dry porter, which emphasized the use of roasted barley. This type of Porter eventually became known as Stout. Today the use of roasted barley distinguishes Stouts from Porters.

Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter is a rich dark chocolaty Porter with a distinctive American hop character. It is a great beer to go with hearty foods and is surprisingly one of the few beers that goes well with dessert. One of our favorite combinations here at Ballast Point is Black Marlin Porter with apple pie a la mode.

Cheers!

Disappointing Beers and Bad Food

We thought it was time to try one of our local brew pubs. We are always on the lookout for good beer and food. Unfortunately, the Creekside Brewing Company did not fit the bill.

Creekside is located in downtown San Luis Obispo (SLO) and as the name suggests it overlooks the creek running through town. The restaurant/pub has outdoor seating that hangs over the creek. This part of town is bustling as the area is home to the San Luis Obispo Mission, the local art center, museum and shopping.

As we approached the restaurant at lunchtime, I was a little leery. While all the tables (5) on the deck were full, the inside seating was completely empty.

Not a good sign when downtown was busy, the sun was out and other restaurants had lines. Do you have a restaurant building in your town that seems cursed? I am afraid this is the spot in SLO. Since moving here in 1999, there have been 5 or 6 eating establishments there. We always try the new ones in hopes someone will break the curse and survive. It seems like a great location...

We order 4 of 4 oz. Tasters for $1.50 each.

Pale Ale
Eric the Red
Vienna Amber
Smoked Porter

The Vienna Amber had a strong smell and taste of butterscotch which hit me like a ton of bricks and isn’t something you should have in a beer. The other three were average.

I ordered the Live Oak Sandwich as I thought it would pair well with the red ale and the smoked porter. Which it did, but the meat was greasy and the fries were some of the worst I have had lately. Eric ordered the California Bird sandwich. The grilled sourdough bread was soaking in butter and so greasy it overpowered the sandwich. I am not sure there is beer that pairs well with a stick of butter. He only ate about half the sandwich and gave up. Below are the descriptions from their website.

Live Oak Sandwich
Smoked beef brisket, pepperjack cheese, grilled onions and horseradish mayonnaise on toasted ciabatta
bread served with fries. Best paired with our stout, red ale or IPA. $8

California Bird
Grilled chicken breast, melted swiss cheese, and smoked bacon on grilled sourdough. Served with fries.
Best paired with our pale ale or red ale. $8

With only one server and no other staff seen. The service was not very good and unfortunately the server knew very little about the beers made there.

I really wish Creeekside Brewing Co. had surprised me with friendly, efficient and knowledgeable serving staff; good beer and food that was at least average pub fare – but, none of these were true.

There are plenty of good restaurants in downtown San Luis Obispo, don’t waste your time or money here until they are able to do a major overhaul of the food, beer and personnel.

Creekside Brewing Company
1040 Broad Street
San Luis Obispo, CA

Well in January I started this blog to chronicle my introduction and experiences in the current beer world. The biggest problem I am having with the whole idea is that there is simply too much information out there. It is overwhelming!
So I thought I would put together a list of some of my favorite homebrew and craft beer website, books, and shows (podcasts). I will be constantly updating the information; each category will have a page on my website.
Today’s top 5 places to start your beer journey.

1. CraftBeer.com
“Craftbeer.com is administered by the Brewers Association (BA), the national organization that represents the interests of small and independent craft brewers in America.” It is a beautifully designed and well organized site that has information for those that enjoy craft beer and the brewmaster. I really appreciated the explanations of the styles of beer and the suggested glassware. In the beginning, I just wanted the basics and did not like wading through the BJCP Style Guidelines for tidbits of info.
2. HomeBrewersAssociation.org
This is the site for all potential and current home brewers. It has great lists of suppliers, clubs, events and more!
3. "The Naked Pint: An Unadultered Guidel to Craft Beer” by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune. This book is a nice introduction to craft beer and will give you a good overview of beer styles, the history, some recipes for cooking with beer and info about home brewing.
4. Joining the Twitter beer community has helped me find new sources and information. Although I do find that some of the people I follow will tweet about anything and I do spend more time than I would like sorting through the information.

5. Brewing Software –Brew Smith.
If you are beginning to brew your own, this software will be very useful. The program is very easy to use, it is organized and prints out a brew sheet with all the necessary instructions for the day of brewing.
What is your Top 5 resources you would recommend to the someone wanting to learn about beer?
Your comments are always welcome and greatly appreciated.

HELP - I am living in the great craft beer void!
Spread the word and start mapping the best stores for craft beers.
Ok, the beer books are stacked up on the living room side table. My first read on the subject of beer was “The Naked Pint”. This well written tale of all things beer was a thirst inducer. So after making it through the chapter titled “The Neophyte”, I was totally pumped to start my tasting. I made a shopping list of all the beers in this chapter and the one’s mentioned in the previous chapter and headed off to the local stores. My excitement was quickly dashed as I was unable to locate most of the items on my list. Needless to say, finding the beers listed in the book “He Said Beer, She Said Wine” will be even more challenging.
Of the first 65 beers listed in “The Naked Pint”, I have been able to locate locally (within 15 miles) only 8. And those 8 were:
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Budweiser
Guinness
Anchor Steam
Pilsner Urquell
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Fat Tire Amber Ale
Alaskan Amber
So what is a girl to do? Well I am trying as many of the other craft beers available here.. And I will soon be making a buying trip to the nearest “big city” of San Luis Obispo and hitting the BevMo. I am afraid this is my only option unless I order them from one of the internet purveyors. Thank god we are brewing our own.
So I have created a new Google Map to help everyone locate beers. I know all of you enjoy spreading the word. if you are a consumer or retailer, Please put your favorite shopping spots on the map.
Buy Craft Beer Map
If you prefer, you can comment below.
List the beers readily available in your area that you would recommend for the newcomer to craft beers. List beers, your city and the place you purchase the items. Keep in mind that I am looking for the following categories for this month:
Pilsner
Helles and Blonds
Hefeweizen
Witbier
American Wheat Beer
Kristallker
“Fruity” Wheat Beers
Lambics
Kolsch
Steam Beer
THANKS for your help!