Since we started home brewing over a year ago, we knew we wanted to find ways to use our spent grain in other projects. As someone who loves to bake bread, I began searching for and experimenting with spent grain bread recipes, but was never totally satisfied with the outcome. After experimenting for several months, I’ve finally worked up a recipe that’s quite good. I highly recommend investing in a kitchen scale to weigh ingredients, because the end product is more consistent.

Rustic Spent Grain Bread

Mix by hand or combine in a stand mixer with bread hook for about 2 minutes, until the dough comes together:

14 ⅞ oz / 421 g (3 ½ cups) bread flour
2 ½ oz / 71 g  (½ cup) spent grain
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp active dry yeast
10 oz / 285 g (1 ¼ cup) lukewarm water

The dough will be slightly sticky. Cover with a towel and let rise for 2 to 2 ½ hours. Cover bowl with plastic wrap (or put dough in a bowl with a lid) and place in refrigerator to ferment overnight. Remove dough from refrigerator about an hour before baking.

Place dutch oven with lid on middle rack of oven. Preheat oven to 475 degrees for at least 30 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface and with lightly floured hands, shape dough into a round loaf. Place on a floured surface and cover with a towel to rise for about 30 minutes while the oven preheats.

Once the oven has preheated, sprinkle top of loaf with a little flour. Use a serrated knife or bread scoring tool to slash an X or other design into loaf.

Carefully remove the hot dutch oven and add the loaf to the hot pan. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the lid from the dutch oven and continue to bake for 20 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown. The bread should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from oven and place loaf on a rack to cool for at least an hour before slicing and eating. Enjoy!