denaturing yeast

[redlodge.sam]

As a growing brewery we are starting to put a lot of yeast down the drain. In an effort to take spent yeast out of the waste stream I have acquired a 150 gallon HDPE tote to collect spent yeast. I would like to denature the yeast by dropping a copper coil running water from the HLT into the yeast slurry in the tote. Once the yeast is denatured, I would add to the spent mash going to the cows.

Two questions:
1. Has anyone tried this method of denaturing?

2. How long and at what temp do you have to hold the yeast to denature it.

Thanks,

Sam

[James Murray]

Currently we are putting our spent yeast into the bottom of the spent grain hoppers prior to grain out. We then simply pour our hot spent grain over the top of it. The idea is that our spent grain being around 160-170 deg. is killing the yeast. We have been doing this for a couple of years now and have had no complaints from our farmer. It takes some rigging to get a system down ( we have 50 BBL- 200 BBL tanks). We dump a lot of yeast. Good luck. Hope that helps.

James Murray
Lead Brewer
Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits
San Diego, CA

[liammckenna]

I would echo the mixing with hot spent grains. Especially if you're feeding to ruminants (cattle).

Could you save it in totes until you've got spent grains?

A small amount of live yeast will not harm a ruminant in any way.

Pigs on the other hand...

Pax.

Liam