It is great to recover the waste protein from the spent grain, however, the facility in which they are working is a disaster! The walls are covered in mold and mildew. I would not want to consume anything that comes out of that place.
I am surprised the NYC health department allowed them to operate like this.
This is so cool. I really hope the company is successful
1
I wish Rise Flour every success in their new venture. I think it’s worth noting, as the reporter of this story did, that all 3 entrepreneurs are immigrants to the U.S. proving once again the value of opening our doors to those who weren’t born in America. As a homemade bread maker, I can’t wait to try their flour with my sourdough starter!
4
Coming from a top ten beer consumed per head of population country my mind reels at the amount of grain - part utilized that is thrown out or processed for less than optimal down stream usage.
I have a mate who runs a craft beer brewery in town - he'll be getting a call soon. There is a quirky appeal in eating a food that was part involved in the making of the beer being consumed at the same meal!!
4
All the "old" cultures used everything available, not just the prime parts. It's New World plentifulness and decadence that is wasteful. Unfortunately, after a few generations, descendents of immigrants succumb to it.
1
The comparison with "traditional all-purpose flour" is exaggerated: "because it’s made from barley, it has twice the protein and 12 times the fiber." Barley has only a little more protein than all-purpose flour (12% vs. 10%) and only 6 times as much fiber (USDA's National Nutrient Database).
1
Nice story and thank you all NYT readers for your comments. I learned that spent grain use is not new but that someone is now monetizing it. This is completely normal. Good ideas often need multiple attempts to get traction and I hope this one will be successful and motivate more upcycle businesses to start and thrive AND most of all make more consumers aware of the untapped benefits of all the food "waste" we produce.
Estimates have shown that around 40-50% of all food gets thrown out. Rise is a very good and healthy step towards reducing that number.
Have a wonderful weekend, everybody! Eat healthy!
6
Thank you for this article. Even though as some have commented that the flour would be too expensive now for most to use I’m so thankful for the few that are working to make it a possibility.
6
This is great and all... but homebrewers have been making spent grain flour by spreading it all out on a baking sheet, drying it in an oven, and grinding it- for many years. I do it all the time. This is not new, just someone is now monetizing it.
10
Which makes sense to do if you are going to deal with the spent grain from commercial breweries. Scaling up a process is not as easy as it sounds. Going commercial is great news. Think how much spent grain Anheuser-Busch must produce. It could feed a city.
9
We must congratulate RISE for his idea BUT we have seen this in Spain 5 years ago...check www.lpernia.com they have been doing Brewers spent grains flour for the last 5 years.....and much more things....for example the have been drying the brewers spent grains, etc...
2
You are touching on a much bigger story here. Simply put what we do with the grain we grow is a huge tragedy. First we poison it before it is even harvested with glyphosate then we remove all the nourishment (wheat germ) and replace that with chemicals. Then we add preservatives that totally interfere with the digestive process.
In short we start with a food that has been prized for thousands of years and totally destroy it. Then we wonder why Americans can eat bread in Europe but get sick from it in the USA.
Again this is a huge story that needs to be told. The fact that we produce mountains of wheat and NONE of it ever gets to the people in any form resembling the perfect food it once was is a travesty.
16
You make excellent points, Allan. For years now I have been eating “whole” foods and grains, lots of vegetables and fruit (organic), grass fed and organic meats, (small portions at that), pastured poultry and eggs, sustainable fish (wild if I can find it). The result at my age of 72 is that I look many years younger and am rarely sick (not even a cold in the last two years). Yes, I still work — with kids so I am exposed to all manner of things. Everyone tells me it is too expensive to eat like that but what they aren’t considering are the health benefits down the line. I have virtually no health care costs. A heart scan my doctor asked me to have (during an annual well check) showed zero plaque — yes I eat eggs and olive oil. I am not using my resources for expensive treatments and loss of quality of life; I am not trying to fix a deficit I created with junky food. I am a firm believer in eating well for a sustainable future. Oh and did I say that food this way is so much more flavorful.
6
Thank you. What i find of most value is bread made from a home ground mixture of hard red and Einkorn wheat berries.
Malting barley is not allowed to be treated with glyphosate as a pre-harvest desiccant.
"Recycle Everything We Can" is not just a slogan. It is how we learn to live on this planet. We each must do what we can. Even me.
7
This article is interesting. What a good idea to put into a business. It is good for two reasons: (1) it is good for the environment to transform waste into food; and (2) this is a nutritious food, as the flour has more protein and fiber and less carbohydrate. Ideas and businesses like this help the country and the world.
4
I occasionally add a small amount of spent grain to bread. I use it whole, so it’s grainy bread. Nice to see it on this scale.
1
http://meadowsmills.com/StoneBurr this will solve the milling problem. i don't work for meadows mills but i've used on their stone burr mills extensively and if ms. jimenez wants to go into production, this is what she needs.
1
This article was obviously written by someone who does not understand the chemistry of baking. The brewing process converts virtually all the starch in grain to sugar and the sugar is removed, The spent grain is predominately fiber from the grain husk (~75%) with the grain protein(~25%). This product may look like flour but it is really a fiber/protein additive.
13
I get the impression you think there is something wrong, even deceptive, with this? Can't see what you think that might be.
It's just not the whole story. Yeast bread can't be made without something to feed the yeast and to form the matrix of the crumb. One could probably use this "flour" to make a bread like cornbread with eggs and a leavener but I doubt it would be very good.
BGM is correct. There are many errors in this article, starting with the fate of spent grains. The vast majority of spent grain becomes animal feed. Small breweries in the middle of NYC might have difficulty getting it to a farm, but most breweries do not. Throwing grain into trash is a very expensive way to get rid of it.
Malting barley is actuality lower in protein than wheat and feed-grade barley. Brewers don't want a lot of protein in malt for many reasons. Spent grain is relatively high in protein because the starch has been saccharified and removed. Spent grain is essentially a fiber and protein additive, even when used as animal feed.
One glaring omission is the food safety aspect of handling spent grain. The Brewers Association recently lobbied the FDA to relax proposed rules on spent grain destined for animal feed, arguing that in hundreds of years of practice, no harm has been done. That should change if feeding the grain to people. The spent grain is wet and hot and very quickly grows bacteria that make it sour and vile smelling. It is also handled using tools that small brewers tend to not keep very clean. I am a commercial brewer and I wouldn't eat spent grain that I didn't source myself.
3
Some of the best bread I've ever had in my life was at Lighthouse restaurant in South Williamsburg where they used Rise Flour. Their bread is incredible to begin with and this pushed it off the charts. They've been supporting Rise from the beginning.
4
We've actually used this flour, we bought 2lbs some months ago after reading about it elsewhere. We thought the idea was fabulous. The website gives some recipes, but you need to pay attention. As stated, whatever you're making should not need to rise. We've made bread (very dense, think soda bread, which also doesn't rise, it was delicious with cultured butter), pancakes, taralli and biscotti. It works really well as long as your expectations are appropriate. We plan on working it into cookies, brownies and pound cakes in the fall. Yes, it's a bit expensive, but it's nice to be on the ground floor with someone trying to make a difference. And, since we already drink beer from the suppliers, it makes it "nose to tail" for us! Support innovation!
29
Thanks for specifics on results-- from a home bread maker. Interested in their Rustic bread, one to one with AP flour. Perhaps Rise will set someone up in Portland...many breweries, possibilities
Amazing Story!
2
So it's being done by immigrants. Sounds good to me... way to go!
13
Biscuits and bread DO need to rise a lot.
5
I have made bread with spent beer grain. I have never processed it into flour though. You have to be careful that the beer grains are not too old and beyond fermented into the rotted stage. You can ask the four dinner guests from a party I had a few years ago. Who'd a thunk bread could make you that sick?
2
The grain doesn’t ferment when you make beer. It could get rotten if you don’t use it quickly.
2
It's a great story but I do wonder why you photographed the founders of this exciting and innovative new business - who include at least one holder of a doctorate in engineering - in their flour-making clothes including head scarf and baseball cap rather than what they'd wear to a business meeting? I get that you want to show them at work but I find your choice to photograph them making flour rather than sitting and talking at a conference table or their desks rather disrespectful.
I find the photos of them at work much more interesting than if they were sitting at a conference table like some stock photo. I'm curious about the process and the people behind it, not their sales pitch. I'm sure it's every bit as innovative and professional as they are but what's wrong with capturing them in the environment where they do their real magic?
16
Another great example of the innovative thinking and energy immigrants have always brought to America. Forever.
14
I will be interested to see how far more efficient, automated machinery can bring down the price of this flour. Another lower carbohydrate flour that is reasonably priced (unlike almond flour, for example) would be welcomed by those, like myself, who are trying to make appealing lower carbohydrate baked goods.
This is a selling point leading to whole potential market not mentioned in the article.
4
Ms. Jimenez, that's a fantastic thing you have have done.
With brewing such a big business, I am surprised the grain has not been repurposed before this. With animals, they find a way to use every part.
I have to think the elimination of waste could really add to the economy, providing food for people, as well as add jobs.
Qjalá que nuestro padre en Roma, Francisco, le gustó.
6
Spent grain is nothing more than bran, which is why it’s all fiber. Proper brewing extracts the food value. Very little nutrition is left unless you’re a ruminant and can digest cellulose: a cow. But I guess if you call it “super” and sell it to people who don’t need calories...
9
Most Americans don't eat enough fiber each day. This can help. It is also a good thing for people with diabetes as the sugars are gone.
5
Beeep! Sorry johnny wrong answer- you lose!
It may have escaped your notice, but in fact quite a few of us who are privileged to live above the poverty line could definitely do with fewer calories.
It’s a neat idea and if it tastes great and is nutritious, why not? But from an ecological and economic perspective, I am thinking that it will have little impact. It might be better for her to put her creative efforts elsewhere. It’s like recycling paper; it is a good idea in principle but there just is not a market for a lot of it. With grain being so efficiently grown, there seem to be few inroads for innovation.
3
This product is essentially a roasted (dried) and milled plant product with a very high energy footprint. How much of the $8/lb is gas or electric? There might be a market for it in Brooklyn, but to think it has a future in mass markets or developing countries is folly. Even at half the price. If dietary fiber is the goal, it is more efficient and economical to bake with whole wheat.
1
From an ecological perspective, Thomas, the potential for impact in repurposing food waste is enormous. The average homebrewer discards 15-20 pounds of spent grain for every 5 gallons of beer brewed. Might not sound like much, but in an interview Seattle’s Georgetown Brewing Company noted they discard 2.4 million pounds of spent grains a year (to produce 20K gallons of beer per month). Multiply that by the thousands of similar craft and micro-breweries around the country (not to mention the big mass brewing companies) and you've got billions of pounds of spent grain waste every year. Some can go to farms, but that has limits. So yes, there is clearly positive ecological and economic impact from a) diverting food waste from landfills and b) creating new products that people want to buy and consume. And yes, there is a market for it, as evidenced by ReGrained bars, Portland Pet dog biscuits and Anheuser-Busch's Canvas protein drinks.
1
On a global scale, it is peanuts (so to speak).
Twice the protein and 12 times the fiber of wheat. Unlike most other grains, barley retains the husk around the seed which helps helps during the beer-making process, as it makes it easier to rinse the sugars after mashing. All that fiber however makes it a bit of a challenge to eat spent grain directly, unless you are a cow. This must be why they have to dry, mill and sift the spent grain, adding significantly to the cost of the flour. Real nice initiative...but we only need so much fiber in our diet!
1
"eat spent grain directly"- nice strawman you got there.
1
Don't know about drying, but I'm pretty sure milling and sifting is required to produce any flour. Characterizing that as "adding significantly to the cost" is nonsense. If you don't do it, it isn't flour, no matter what grain you use.
3
Great idea. Good for all of you involved who came up with this. I wish you well and can’t wait to taste it.
17
Our local bagel shop makes some tasty bagels from it. No shortage of spent grains here as we have a ton of outstanding craft breweries. Pacific Northwest life just got a bit better!
13
Great to see another use for spent grain from the brewery. The article is slightly misleading in that spent grain is waste food. Spent grain is a direct supplement to cattle feed. Almost every lb of spent grain in the US is repurposed in this way and saves on the use of other crops that could have been used in food production. It does make a nice bread too.
13
I recently got into making whiskey. To make a micro batch I had to mill 10 lbs of malt. The actually malt is soaked in water and the like the article says this releases the sugar and enzymes.
Only the water gets distilled and I was sad to see that I had pounds off used malt husk left over. I thought about baking bread but it seemed like too much work. I'm glad someone went about doing something of this.
I'm not sure though how good it would be for baking though. I feel as if its gluten development will be weak and many bakeries might not like the idea of it being harder to work with. But it's better than using it for animal feed and I hope Rise is successful.
4
Another name for the spent barley mash is swill. The NYC swill milk scandal of the 1850s was about milk from cows kept next to breweries, who were fed the swill. The milk was adulterated to make it more like country cow milk, with substances that were harmful.
5
Surely it was the adulterants that were the problem there? How is that relevant to this story?
1
I've asked for spent grain to add to homemade bread, and it is absolutely delicious. Glad some one is doing it on a larger scale.
10
Hello! Border security should pass this ypung woman on education alone. What is the big deal?
6
What a wonderful story. I can't see anything but success here.
12
This is yet another example of the creative, thoughtful and useful ideas that immigrants often come up with. Might someone mention this to our president?
60
My thoughts exactly! This group of entrepreneur's are an example of what good can come from immigration.
3
I had the same thought when I saw Ms
Jimenez’s name and read that she was from Ecuador. Different place, different ideas...
WOW.........she should be nominated for a MacArthur fellowship- GENIUS GRANT!
39
My future husband and I took a took of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis in 1992. The tour guide mentioned that the grain was used to make Roman Meal bread after it was used in the brewing process. Some of it was used for animal feed.
It seems that the idea of grinding the leftover grains into flour is a new approach.
16
My 24 year old nephew making g $90,000 a year dreams of baking bread.
Making bread replenishes the soul. It is basic, tactile and it feeds you,
Unlike most of the modern world.
So don't be surprised if PhDs are doing it...
23
First, it is shocking to see in 2018 in New York a woman with a doctorate in engineering milling flour by hand for a living.
But second, perhaps this after-beer flour retains some of the original alcoholic taste that it imparts to the baked products.
Best wishes to Dr. Jimenez.
7
The article plainly states that the grains are soaked in water and release sugar which is later converted to alcohol. There is no alcohol in the spent grains.
16
@ Frazer Charlotte, NC
Thank you for the correction. I must have overlooked the rinsing of the grains. But I feel disappointed that the flour holds no alcohol -- it would have enlivened the baked creations.
One of the byproducts of yeast making bread rise is alcohol. Ever taste any boozy flavored bread? No? That's because it all evaporates during baking.