Have just been making some granola out of the spent grains from a stovetop (4.5L) California Common kit - all helps to make the spending on kits go that little bit farther!
All went well (including with the kit, BTW) with the exception that, when thinking about how much sugar to put in, first I tasted the spent grain - and found it already quite sweet. This set a few alarm bells ringing because I'm thinking that I haven't managed to get all the sugars out of the grain and, therefore, that there is something wrong with my mashing or sparging (I'm on a BIAB set up but both recycle and sparge specifically to ensure I get all the sugars out). My OG was 1.052, which is the same as in other CC recipes in both my bibles so I must have been doing something, well, OK.
But the nagging question remains - one for chemists really, I guess (and from a non-chemist). Should the spent grains be sweet because not all the sugars in grain are fermentable? Or have I left a few behind?
All went well (including with the kit, BTW) with the exception that, when thinking about how much sugar to put in, first I tasted the spent grain - and found it already quite sweet. This set a few alarm bells ringing because I'm thinking that I haven't managed to get all the sugars out of the grain and, therefore, that there is something wrong with my mashing or sparging (I'm on a BIAB set up but both recycle and sparge specifically to ensure I get all the sugars out). My OG was 1.052, which is the same as in other CC recipes in both my bibles so I must have been doing something, well, OK.
But the nagging question remains - one for chemists really, I guess (and from a non-chemist). Should the spent grains be sweet because not all the sugars in grain are fermentable? Or have I left a few behind?