“Two of the more dubious achievements of American culture are white bread and light beer.”
– Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly (Real Beer and Good Eats)
Of all the cooking up of things my family does, one of the guys’ favorite activities is making homebrew. Hardly a weekend goes by when they’re not mashing, sparging and fermenting some sort of grains. (Of course, one of their other favorite things to do is drink the beer they make, thus setting up this constant effort to keep the fridge full.)
Each batch of beer begins with around 11 pounds of malted grain … all in completely different levels of maltedness. From a light, toasty pale malt to a dark, chocolate-colored malt these grains are used to provide the sugar that the beer needs to ferment. After that, the beer makers discard the spent grain to either the birds or the garbage.
Naturally, as a bread maker I was saddened by the loss of all that lovely grain, spent or otherwise. I knew I could use it for bread, but the recipes I found on the internet really weren’t all that appealing to me. Most were developed by beer makers and seemed a little on the heavy side.
It took me awhile, but I finally developed a recipe that is light and chewy at the same time. I like the texture of the grain, but it’s not overpowering. This is a good bread for toast, since the grains get crunchy and the toast stays tender. It’s a good loaf of hearty bread with just the right amount of sweetness. After all, man cannot live by beer alone.
- 1¼- 1½ cups water
- 3 tablespoons Oil
- 3 tablespoons Agave Syrup
- 3 cups Bread or AP Flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup spent grain
- 2¼ teaspoon instant yeast or one package, bloomed.
- 2 teaspoon salt
- Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the water, oil and Agave syrup (this is if you’re using a stand mixer to mix it with the dough hook.)
- When the dough comes away from the bowl without being too sticky, continue kneading with the dough hook until the dough ball is elastic and shiny, about 5-8 minutes.
- Transfer to an oil-coated bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size.
- Shape into whatever shape you want — loaf, round, rolls — cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise about another 30-40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, turn on the oven to 410 degrees.
- When dough is ready, place in oven and immediately throw a large handful of ice into the bottom of the oven.
- Close the door immediately and bake for approximately 30-45 minutes, depending on the size of your loaves or rolls.
- Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- This bread will turn very brown and will have a chewy consistency when eaten. It will save for a couple of days in a sealed container, but will dry out quickly after that.
Ello, good show. Sounds like wonderful bread. I’m gonna try it out this evening in fact. Will post again to let you know my result!
Can’t wait to hear how it turns out!
WOW, this is delicious! Wonderful job coming up with this!
This bread is so, so good and I’ve received a lot of compliments about it. Light, airy, with just the right amount of sweetness, and crunch from the grains. I prematurely tossed a bunch of grain before the bread came out of the oven, and I wish I hadn’t. Next batch I’ll save more spent grain to freeze. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for the positive comments. It always gets a lot of compliments whenever I take it somehwere
It is light, which is unlike lots of this type of bread. I freeze my grain, too. I just put it in one cup measurements and vacuum seal them. I only mark them as dark or light and I really like the dark bread, better! 
I just recently dried all my grain and turned it into flour. Could I substitute the whole wheat for this and leave out the spent grains? Thanks!
I would think that that would be o.k. for the whole wheat flour substitute. Have you used it before as a substitute. The spent grains add a texture that isn’t necessarily replaceable. You would need to add a bit more flour, but the texture wouldn’t end up the same. If you try it, let me know and maybe the next time you get some grain you could save some and try it that way, as well.
Thanks!
Hi Pam! I made this bread recently and it turned out fantastic! (I also tried to make a gluten-free version, but I am not good at improvising baking recipes quite yet, haha.)
i have a question. I read online that throwing the ice in the bottom of the oven can be quite dangerous. Do you think that is an exaggeration? Or do different types of ovens determine whether or not it would be a bad idea (electric/gas, sealed/not sealed)?
Because I was afraid to try it, I threw ice onto a baking pan, but this warped my nice pan rather badly, so I wasn’t very satisfied with that approach.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts you have on this subject!
Hi
Glad you liked the bread. I’ve really enjoyed it. I have never heard about a problem with adding ice to the oven. I have an electric oven with a visible element and I do this often. Some other recipes suggest spritZing the inside your oven with water, but I’ve found that releases too much heat as the door is open too long. An alternative would be to get an inexpensive pan at a thrift store or someplace that you could place in the oven as it warms up an throw ice into that and just use it for that purpose. I’m sorry I don’t knowing more than that. I would hate for you to do something you would be hesitant to do, despite the fact that I do it 
Thanks for getting back to me! I trust your expertise! Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’re getting someone else’s sage advice, or inheriting their paranoias. Which is why I wanted to check in with you.
We have an old gas oven, and I can’t think of a reason why it would harm the oven. I guess it’s just fear of the unknown! I’ll try to be brave next time
Thanks again!
if you have a glass window in your oven dripping water or dropping ice on it can crack it because of the variation in temperature. if you want to find way, way, way too much information on the creation of steam in your oven while baking bread, go to The Fresh Loaf (www.thefreshloaf.com), and search for “oven steam.” You will not believe the number of methods contributors there have come up with.
I like the ice in a cheap pan method myself. long release, not too scary if you’re a little careful.
Thanks for the link and the personal recommendation!
Hi! My boyfriend just brewed a batch of Red IPA yesterday and because he’s been pestering me to make some spent grain bread decided to give this a try today or tomorrow but I had a clarification request!
You mention adding the dry ingredients and the water but never mention when to add the Agave Syrup, the Oil and the Yeast. I’m guessing that you don’t need all three TBSP to oil the bowl for rising. I know that sugar is usually considered “dry” but I would have thought that a liquid sugar would be different.
Should I bloom the yeast in the 1-1/4 c water (warm) with the Agave Nectar and then add them together with the Oil before kneading?
I’m not an expert at making bread, though I do bake a lot, so I would appreciate the clarification!
Thanks! Really looking forward to making this recipe!
Hi. Thank you so much for bringing that to my attention! I apologize for being unclear
You would add the agave and the oil at the same time as the water. None of that oil is used to oil the bowl. You certainly can bloom the yeast as you suggested. I use “instant yeast” which can just be added directly to the ingredients. In any case, it never hurts to take that extra step as it ensures your yeast is viable prior to baking the whole loaf!!
Hi! I have friend who brews regularly and I am just starting to play with the idea of bread from the grains. Previously I made bread from the wet grains. I currently have a bunch of the dried grains. What suggestions do you have for using the dried grains? Any recipes you would recommend?
Thank you!
I would think you could use the grains in place of seeds or grains in any kind of bread, swapping them out in equal amounts. Or, even add them to a nice bread recipe and see what happens. More than likely, you’d have to add a bit more liquid. You can certainly use them in this recipe, with just a little more liquid, as well.