Baker Gets Crafty With Spent Grains, Beer

This article originally appeared in Craft Brewing Business; Written by Jason Morgan, 05.05.15

Hewn–a Chicago-based artisanal bakery that utilizes heritage grains and specializes in hand forged, naturally fermented breads and pastries–has found an interesting and sustainable way to utilize the spent grains from local breweries that would normally be thrown away.

When it comes to brewing beer, spent grains can constitute as much as 85 percent of a brewery’s total by-product. Hewn obtains buckets of spent grains after the brewing process from local breweries such as Temperance, Peckish Peg and Sketchbook Brewing Co. Head Baker/Owner Ellen and her team pick up the buckets once a week and carefully fold the spent grains (generally consisting of barley and whole wheat) into the dough each morning to produce 15 to 20 fresh loaves per day. This “craft beer bread” undergoes a unique baking process to remove the moisture and produces a warm, nutty and complex bread, the bakery explained…