Grains used to produce wort which is then fermented into the final product can be processed into an ingredient that is useable for further food products. This could be by milling the grain into a flour, or by taking the product and forming it into a cereal type product. The grains are high in fibre and contain some sugars, and could easily be marketed as a byproduct of beer. They could also be used for low sugar products, as about 70% of the sugars have been removed in the fermentation process. By creating new products with the grains, the profit the breweries make is likely to increase, and therefore keep the industry secure. This also prevents a significant amount of grain from simply being dumped into the environment.

 

Baking products with spent grain has been done by home brewers for quite a while. According to the American Homebrewers Association (2014), the grains will not bond perfectly with other ingredients so it needs to have added flour in order for the baked products to actually come out edible. The same issue is present for the flour created from the grains. The American Homebrewers Association (n.d) say that about half the amount of total flour can be replaced with flour created from spent grains. The gains will not bond well because of the lower gluten content. Gluten is a protein found in wheat flour and will swell during the breadmaking process and form a network structure across the product to help stabilise and bond it (Bake Info, n.d). Most of the gluten proteins are removed during the mashing stage of production, so the resulting grains have a much lower gluten content and therefore cannot easily bond baked goods alone.

 

New products created could include anything that is currently grain based, such as breads, cereals, muesli bars etc. One main benefit of this process is the ability to market it as a product made from beer byproducts. The popularity of beer in this society will hopefully translate to the popularity of these products.