By Ana Zimmer, Pastry Chef

In the wee hours of the morning, way before the sun is up and the cows milked, the pastry team is in the kitchen at the Pelican Pub & Brewery baking breads and pastries from scratch. One of these delicious treats is the Pelican's Spent Grain Bread. This artisan bread is made from the Pelican's award-winning beer, which is brewed on site, along with the spent grain.

Spent grain is a byproduct of the brewing process. The grain is made up of malt and grain that remains in the mash kettle after the mashing process. By mass, spent grain consists of about half carbohydrates and the rest being mostly proteins and lignin, the organic substance in plants that makes them rigid.

After the brewers hand over the hot spent grain to the kitchen, the pastry team can get started on making the bread. Combining flour, beer from the brewery, salt, yeast, honey and the spent grain, they form wonderful smelling dough. The dough is then chilled in the cooler overnight for easy forming.

The next morning the dough is formed and proofed. When the bread is finally pulled from the oven it fills the air with a tantalizing malt smell, making it difficult to refrain from tasting one of the piping hot loaves.

The brewers, pastry team, and baristas at Stimulus all take pride in this bread and do their best to provide a wonderful culinary treat. Whether you eat it plain, toasted, or as a sanwich built fresh by the Stimulus baristas, you will be in heaven.

Some pairing suggestions:

The MacPelican Scottish Style Ale Spent Grain Bread is the most versatile and a crowd favorite - perfect for a deli sandwich or with French onion soup or leg of lamb.

I recommend pairing the Doryman's Dark Spent Grain Bread with a pasta dish such as lasagna or stroganoff, or perhaps with barb-b-que.

And finally, consider picking up some Tsunami Stout Spent Grain Bread to go with your hearty stew or savory Reuben sandwich on these blustery winter days.