How do you dispose your DE?

[schmogger]

Just wondering what some of the other breweries are doing with their DE when their filtration is done?

[fa50driver]

The farmer who takes our grain, trub, hops, and waste yeast mixes it in with the feed in small quantities. Since he uses a total mixed ration (combining brewery waste stream with normal corn silage, corn, oats, etc) the small amount is fairly insignificant. Of Course we only filter one beer. Tried dumping it on the garden - Forms a pretty hard crust that kind of gets nasty.

[schmogger]

Thanks fa50driver for that info. Anyone else care to chime in?

[TonyC42]

I don't particularly like the way we dispose of it but we shovel it into the dumpster.

[Kushal]

Our farmer picks it up.

[liammckenna]

Best to put it in the solid waste stream (ie - dumpster ---> landfill)

Spreading it - ie. on a garden - will lead to airborne dried DE. Nasty inhalant hazard.

Digging it into a garden? - Whatever is in that garden will love you until the end of time if you do this early in the growing season. Too late and you will give your ripening plants an unwanted dose of nitrogen (yeast/protein)

Compost? - in an actively turned pile with a good mix of 'brown' to 'green' - amazing.

Animal feed? - only in 'finishing' animals for slaughter. DE is abrasive and causes dental and other problems when fed in steady state rations to animals. They do love it though...Live yeast can also a problem for mono-gastrics like pigs and horses...

Pax.

Liam