What do you do with...

[Golddiggie]

What do you do with the sediments left after you rack off a brew? I just racked my first porter and since I didn't have a strainer to use at the time, there's a good amount of drek in the bottom of the bucket... Should I save that, dry it out, and use it as yeast food/nutrient in my next batch of either beer or mead?? Or should I just toss it?? ???

 

[AToE]

I just toss mine. Try using the advanced search function with "nutrient" in the tread title, there was a thread in the last week or two where a bunch of people discussed the pros and cons of using lees as nutrients.

 

[Golddiggie]

Should have done that before posting... Don't think I'll do anything with the sludge then... Don't want to risk having a boil-over mess to deal with either... I had thought about spreading it onto 1/2 sheet pans and baking it to dehydrate/kill it (300F or 350F should be enough to kill anything still alive there)... I will plan on getting some brewers yeast next time I think of it (at the grocery store) to boil and use in a future batch...

 

[AToE]

I like bread yeast because it's cheap as dirt for nutrients. It smells really sweet and scary, but I've never noticed that smell stick around in the finished mead.

 

[Golddiggie]

Good to know...

I did put a good amount of what's spent into a container, then into the fridge... I'm planning on seeing if my landlord wants it added to the compost heap... Could do good things there, I would think... Yes? If nothing else, the worms could get happy... ;D

 

[AToE]

I would think it would work wonderfully with compost or just as fertilizer.

 

[mmclean]

The compost is where mine goes.

 

[Golddiggie]

That settles it then... I'm going to take it up to my sister/mother's place where I get veggies when the garden is going... Let them use it in the compost heap so that I benefit from it being used... ;D

Would you put it into the fridge, or freeze it if it's not going right into the compost pile? I'm looking at not getting up there until Wednesday... Just don't want the container to burst between then and now... Think I better put it into a ziplock bag too... The container is basically full (very little room in it)... Wouldn't want it to go active and make a nasty mess in the fridge... :-X

 

[Chevette Girl]

I've been tossing my sludge in the compost pile for years... every now and then though, when the lees have been really fluffy and I lost a lot to racking, I've sanitized a mason jar and put as much liquid as I could get into the fridge to let it settle out then topped off with the cleared stuff.

If I were you I'd keep it in the fridge, I've popped ziplock bags with fermentation before when left on the kitchen counter...

We now have curbside compost pickup here, and in the summer it was terrible for fruit flies if I left anything wine or fruit-related in the bin for too long, so what I do now if I have a lot of gunk to pitch, I leave it at room temperature in a spare ex-fermenter (well-used bucket where there are excessive scratches or plastic starting to bubble) under airlock until the night before garbage pickup day. A plastic wrap and elastic band will work as an airlock for other containers, if it's already been fermented it shouldn't kick up and expand unless you somehow give the yeast more to eat.

 

[Golddiggie]

I figured that the plastic container I put the sludge into is inside a gallon ziplock bag (plenty of space that way)... Figure that if it swells, and pops the cover to the container, it won't fill the bag (it's in a ~3 cup container)...

I'll probably save the sludge from future batches in a bell (or Mason) jar so that I can keep it around long enough...

 

[montanameadman]

If you are into it, I like to use my dregs, from either beer or mead, to make some bread. It works great. It adds whatever flavors are in your brew to your bread.
Some do work better than others, but its fun to whip up a loaf just to see what you get.

Good luck!

 

[Golddiggie]

Been more than a few years since I've made any kind of bread... I'll think about using some of the dregs in a bread at some point... Will need to figure out how it will effect the recipe though, before hand...

I'm thinking that using it in the family compost heap will be a good thing for now... I can keep the dregs from batches I'm making until I visit them... Since I've racked both beers I'm making already, the next set would be when I rack the mead batches... Will have to see what's in the bottom of the melomel bucket... Could probably bring that up there too... Going to be a rather interesting addition to the heap... I'm going to be curious to see if adding the dregs/sludge actually helps the garden in a noticeable way...

 

[Chevette Girl]

Been more than a few years since I've made any kind of bread... I'll think about using some of the dregs in a bread at some point... Will need to figure out how it will effect the recipe though, before hand...

I'm so going to try that... I'm thinking my approach will either be to use the dregs like a sourdough starter or use it in place of the water in the recipe...