Cows Happy on Recycled Beer
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin 
on 11.10.07
image credit: ::law_keven on flickr
We all know beer has great nutritional value, that's why you drink it ...or? And of course the beverage supplies energy. Therefore past beer recycling projects have focused on the beer-to-energy angle, or turning waste beer to fuel your auto. If that seems a waste of good beer to you, you will welcome the announcement by Greene King Brewery of Suffolk, UK, to build a beer recovery plant. Greene King will take back keg dregs and expired beers so that the benefits of yeast and the fresh ingredients can be given back to the local farms that supply Greene King--in the form of cow-feed flavorizer. Yummmooooo.
Brewery spokesperson Frances Brace is quoted in Big News Day:
Farmers love it and although the waste is still alcoholic it doesn't seem to do the animals any harm, although we have noticed rather a lot of happy cows around East Anglia.
Usually, old beer and the precipitates (especially rich in yeast) are thrown down the drain, where they are a burden on water treatment facilities in addition to wasting valuable nutrients in beer which is not, after all, bad; it is merely not fresh enough for picky humans. And since the best-by date for Greene King's fresh ales is three days after delivery to the pub, the cows will be getting some pretty good stuff!
Greene King has distributed beer wastes for these uses in the past, but the beer recovery facility will expand the process. Environmental manager Keith Ogden claims this will reduce the traffic around the plant as well, presumably improving the efficiency of the current process which must turn the beer waste around in small lots. An application to build the beer recovery facility has been submitted to the St Edmundsbury Borough Council by Greene King.
Via NPR radio report and ::Big News Day
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Working at a pub, you can find all types of uses for that ullage ... here are few of my favorites:
~ Beer Bread
~ Beer Cornbread
~ Beer Drop Biscuits
~ Growing Award-Winning Sunflowers
Yes, and it will lead to happy children drinking their Happy Milk.
Does anyone have a brain? The story says nothing about removing the alcohol content from the beer before feeding it to the cows. In 20 years research will probably show that cows developed pot bellies from all the beer.
Dude, have you ever seen a cow? There already fat. They look like a big square animal.
Dude, have you ever seen a cow? They already have pot bellies.
well humans act happy on beer why cant cows and it better then dumping it down the drain.
When I worked in a brew pub and brew-on-premises, a farmer came and picked up the grain mash left after brewing. It wasn't exactly beer, but it fermented naturally by the time the cows got it. They apparently loved it.