Oklahoma State Researchers Are Turning Beer Waste Into Food

Chips made out of spent grain, next to a pile of spent grain.

Megan Silveira / FAPC Communications Services

Originally published on September 9, 2019 10:31 am

Researchers at Oklahoma State University are working on turning beer waste into food.

When beer is made, starch and sugars are extracted from the grain, but the solid material is left as waste—nearly 52 pounds for every barrel brewed.

Danielle Bellmer and her research team are looking for ways to reuse that spent grain.

“To date, there haven't been really any great uses of that waste product, but it has some nutritional value,” says Bellmer.

So, she has partnered with Iron Monk Brewing Company in Stillwater. They give the researchers their spent grain, and Bellmer and her team use it to develop human food.

“One of the products that we've been working on is a chip, and we’re trying to make it kind of like pita chip- so really crunchy. But it'll be dark and an artesian-type chip that hopefully a brewery could sell in their taproom,” says Bellmer.

Bellmer hopes to have the new chips on Iron Monk’s shelves within the next few months.