Five Fascinating Links

Food: Whole Foods, Expensive Cheese, and the Dilemma of Cheap Prison Labor.

I had no idea public-private enterprises for prison labor use existed (again). It seems like a sticky situation, in that I can understand the arguments that this is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s definitely something for me to further mull over. And I’d love to know your thoughts on the matter, please.

A cheese board with built in cutlery. Alas, it won't help me cut through the ethical problems with so many cheeses.

Beer: The Defining Reason to Talk About Sam Adams Not Being ‘Craft’

“Craft” is a tricky word in the beer industry and in the beer community. You may have heard about (or participated in!) the debates around “craft vs ‘crafty’,” but the conversation seems to have died down some in the years since that press release was put out.… Continue reading →

[128] Spent Grain Sandwich Bread

Adapted from the Amish White Bread recipe on AllRecipes.

This is actually a challenge recipe. I know our initial rules specify that recipes from the internet don’t count. However, this is both a recipe from the internet and one a friend had carefully selected to give to me for Christmas one year (back in 2008), in a recipe book. I love the book and I love MBBB and thus I’m delighted to share with you.

Of course, as it was a selection from MBBB, when I finally went to make this recipe (more than four years after this blog started), that I included spent grain flour was only fitting.

And man. As soon as I made it, I regretted not making it sooner. I’ve had it before (without spent grain flour).… Continue reading →

Spent Grain Flour

So, there I was, merrily writing away on how to make spent grain bread when I realized something important. The recipe calls for spent grain flour. And I hadn’t written how to make spent grain flour at home…

Thus, deciding I didn’t want to do this backwards, you’re just going to have to wait a few more posts for the spent grain bread recipe. This is a good thing, actually. I promise. It means you can both learn more about how you’re going to make this fine bread AND I can experiment yet more on how to make sure it’s delightful.

Plus, don’t you need to plan your brew day so you can get some spent grain?1

Anyway, on to making flour. What I do is a slight modification from what the fine folks at Brooklyn Brew Shop do to make their spent grain flour.Continue reading →

Some Food Science Related to Brewers’ Spent Grain

As I’ve immersed myself in beer culture, I’ve come to be incredibly aware of brewery waste. In particular, a brewery-in-planning specifically mentioned spent grain and its uses to me; until then I hadn’t really put much thought into it. That mention led Bill and I to make a few loaves of spent-grain bread, after which I became curious about the nutritional content of spent grain.

So I did what is practically second nature these days: I asked Google to help me figure it out. From various, long-unrecalled sources, I did discover spent grain has a lot of fiber (which I expected) and is high in protein (which surprised me).

I was most curious about micronutrients, though, which is how I ended up asking Google, PhD1 for further help.… Continue reading →

Coffee Beer. French Toast. Quiche. Wins.

Spent grain might be magic, guys.

I know. I know. I’m SUPPOSED to be talking about homebrew. Since, you know, that was the basis of the giveaway. And, frankly, the homebrew was delicious. Our coffee amber was well-received (and I’m told it’s been entered in its first contest!), though the two bombers we shared were fascinatingly different. Both quite tasty, but one was more deeply akin to coffee than the other. We speculated that the coffee wasn’t properly mixed in at bottling time, but we’ll never know for sure.

On top of that, we tried a couple of bottles of homebrew from my friends Jason and Matt. Jason’s “Nightmare Stout” was delicious and deep. Matt’s “Damn Fine Cup of Coffee” was exceptional. It hit all the right notes of coffee and stout, without being huge and heavy.… Continue reading →