A glass of local beer on a terrace on rue Saint-Denis or in the subdued light of your favorite bar, it always feels good. If you and your colleagues drink the equivalent of 10 liters of beer during your 5 to 7 at Laurier Park, did you know that these liters will have generated 2 kg of waste?
If we multiply that, a hundred liter (100 liters) of beer gives 20 kg of grains. In 2018, 1.94 billion hectares were produced worldwide. We ended the year with 38.8 million drenches.
That's a lot, but what exactly are the drains? Sounds a little weird, we know that.
Drums simply refer to solid grain residue from brewing production. With all the craft beers that emerge every year, grain, it is created in Quebec.
But let's start at the beginning.
Where does the drain come from?
Grains, typically barley, are central to beer making.
After the malting process, the cereals are broken and brews in hot water. Then, they are filtered to harvest a sweet liquid, must. This liquid will slowly continue its route towards your pint of ambree thanks to the know-how of the artisans and artisans of your region.
On the other side of the filtration, we end up with malt residual. These waste, as waste, account for 85% of products derived from the beer industry. It's huge.
Even if it is used for animal feed, many of these 39 million or so grains generated annually end up in compost or trash.
Basically, we love beer, we like to produce beer, but we lack options when it comes to “after”.
Even with all the goodwill in the world, to recover, conserve and transform the crêche requires reflection, a little effort and a touch of imagination.
If you 've already looked at our ingredient lists, you might see us coming. The still Good cookies contain it, them, drenches. In a few steps, they go from grain residue to delicious cookies helping to fight against food waste.
Comment? We'll be back soon, I promise.
Sources
BEER CANADA. "How do we make beer," in Beer 101 , [Online], 2021. [ https://www.beercanada.com/fr/biere-101/comment-la-biere-est-fabriquee ].
BRASERY SAINT-CLAIR. "Drêches, a valued brewing by-product," in The life of the brewery , [Online], July 3, 2020. [ https://brasserie-saint-clair.com/les-dreches-un-sous-produit-de-brassage-valorise /].
CHETRARIU, A., and A. Dabija. « Brewer’s Spent Grains: Possibilities of Valorization, a Review », Applied Sciences , 13 août 2020. doi : 10.3390/app10165619.
SHEN, Yizao., and collab. « Feed Nutritional Value of Brewers’ Spent Grain Residue Resulting from Protease Aided Protein Removal », Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology , 18 septembre 2019. doi : 10.1186/s40104-019-0382-1.