Spent brewers’ grain could be big business as chicken feed
Chicken consumption has doubled in the U.S. since 1980, breezing past beef in 2010. But nearly three-quarters of production costs in the industry are bound up in what the birds eat.
Spent grain from the brewing industry offers a huge opportunity for animal agriculture, with about 36.4 million tons produced as waste annually. Brewers’ spent grain (BSG) is frequently upcycled and used as cattle and hog feed, but chickens cannot efficiently digest such fiber-rich ingredients.