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Com-Prost? Chicago's Dovetail Brewery Has Spent Grain to Share
- Bob Benenson
- Mar 24
- 3 min read
Help Reduce Waste with Leading German-Style Producer
Spent grain from the brewing process has many beneficial uses, from livestock feed to composting to all-natural soil amendments to baking to other "upcycled" processed foods. And these uses help keep the spent grain from being wasted and ending up in landfills.
There's a problem: Spent grain is highly perishable. So even breweries that would love to share it with end users — especially those that operate in urban areas — have difficulty finding takers.
One of these is Dovetail Brewery — a leading producer of traditional German beer styles — which is located in the heart of Chicago's North Side in an area known as Malt Row because of its concentration of craft breweries and distilleries.
So Local Food Forum is sharing their willingness to give their spent grain away to anyone who can pick it up quickly and use it. Here is the word from Hagen Dost, brewer/owner of Dovetail since its 2014 opening:
We have a large amount of spent grain, 4 cubic yards every Tuesday through Friday, that can be used as feed for hogs or cattle, or as compost material. We would like to set up a system with anyone looking for a source of spent grain for no cost.
Click below to email Hagen with your interest.
I was an early (like late 1970s early) adopter of craft beer, I have been a fan of Dovetail over the decade that they've been in operation. They expanded my field of favored beer varieties, because I had previously not been fond of German beer.
This stems from my college days. The American mass-brewed beers we drank in the dorms had only one merit, and that is they were cheap. I'd grown up with a palate for good food that expanded into drink, and my efforts to try anything else led me to German imports, except... there was something not quite right about them.
I later learned this was because the beer was placed into glass bottles, shipped thousands of miles and exposed to light in storage and on shelf where it became stale. So I avoided it until I sampled Dovetail's super-fresh and authentic German varieties that won me over.
During a visit Dovetail on March 18, I ran Hagen and his father Hagen Sr., from whom I learned of a major change in German imports. Hagen Sr. said to address that deterioration problem, the beers were now being shipped in tanks, and bottled only after they get to the U.S.
So I learned something, and maybe I'll give those imports a try one of these days. But I'd still rather get my German stylings from Dovetail.
While I was there, I enjoyed these expressions.
Rauchbier in German means "smoked beer," a reference to the beechwood smoked malt that goes into the recipe. My first experience with this variety, a German import, was... unsubtle: It was kind of like drinking a bottle of liquid smoke. Dovetail's version, however, is much milder and approachable.
Dovetail's description is apt, stating that it gives the "impression of eating a bar of chocolate in a smokehouse, full and rich with generous hopping to balance the flavor of smoked bacon from the malt."
While the Rauchbier is a modest 5.3 percent alcohol by volume, the inky dark bourbon-barrel-aged Rauchdoppelbock clocks in at 10.4 percent ABV. Because the proprietors want you to head home on your own two feet, it is served in much smaller portions.
As a longtime fan of barrel-aged beer, I loved it and recommend it, but be aware that it's high octane.
Dovetail, located at 1800 W Belle Plaine Ave. in Chicago, is open Monday through Thursday from 12 pm. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
I can also recommend that you attend the annual outdoor Mayfestiversary event that will be staged by Dovetail and their next-door neighbors at Begyle Brewing on May 24 and 25. Great craft beer, food trucks, music and lots of gemütlichkeit ... and it raises money for The Friendship Center food bank.
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