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 →

Time to Goddamn Learn

TW: Rape.

This is going to be short. I don’t have a lot of patience for this bullshit:

If you need a goddamn “panty dropper” to “get laid” then you are engaging in sexual assault.

Maybe you didn’t know this. Time to goddamn learn. No, it’s not ok if there’s also a “boxer/briefs dropper.” Sure, as a friend pointed out, then it’s equally targeting men and women, but it’s a motherfucking race to the bottom at that point. It’s some bullshit if “men as targets too” is the end result of working toward “equality.”

Just because he is/she is/they are drunk DOESN’T MEAN HE WANTS/SHE WANTS/THEY WANT TO FUCK.

And even if they seem to want to, doesn’t mean they always want to. It seems confusing sometimes, I know.… Continue reading →

Random Tidbits

Starting today, I’m trying to go lactose-free for two weeks. Avoiding milk, cheese, yogurt, and milk stouts is no fun, but it’s actually fairly simple in practice. What’s already stymied me (but not yet thwarted me) is butter. I basically have to assume all restaurants use butter in all things, don’t I? So a quick pastry as I dart from place to place is going to be a non-starter for awhile. I have dinner reservations with a friend on Thursday, and I wonder if this is going to be a problem. It’s a little stressful. I’m sure I’ll manage it, but I’m going to be stressing about it until it’s done. Maybe it’ll just help me get into and stay with the habit of carrying nuts or similar as a snack at all times.… 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 →

A Time to Pause

A friend is moving out west today. From here in Chicago. I’m going to miss him.

Another is going to visit tomorrow night, as she travels from the density of the east coast to the prairies of Canada.

A family member is in incredibly poor health. Updates have been a roller coaster ride and no one knows what’s next.

In-home things have slid to the side as we travel, deal with bad news, with seeing friends, and more.

It’s time for a pause, to collect thoughts, writings, friends’ visits, our family’s updates, the in-home movements. This week, and part of next, I will be taking that pause. I won’t be updating MetaCookbook during that pause. I’ll update again August first.

I hope you find time for a pause (big or small) too, and that we all are refreshed in our pauses.… Continue reading →