Vote for Pizzeria Paradiso under Food & Drink > Best Pizza: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/bestofpoll/

By Greg Kitsock

Every work week Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock of DC Brau shovel about 1,500 pounds of soggy grain out of their mash tun. Left to itself, this used-up barley (it resembles “dehydrated oatmeal,” according to Skall) would begin to fester, turning sour and smelly in a day or less.

None of it goes into the city’s sewer system, assert Skall and Hancock. Their usual modus operandi is to donate their leftovers to local farmers, who use for it for composting or, more commonly, for livestock feed. (“Cows are number one,” says Skall, but goats and poultry like it as well.)

To celebrate Martin Luther King Day, the partners set their sights a few links up the food chain and decided to turn their waste into bread for the city’s indigent population.

The day after the holiday, Skall and Hancock sealed five gallons of spent grain in a food-grade plastic bucket and rushed the grain, still warm from steeping in hot water, to Pizzeria Paradiso, which turned it into loaves at its kitchens in Dupont Circle and Old Town.

Read the full story

DC Brau and Pizzeria Paradiso today announced plans to use spent grain from the brewery to bake 50 loaves of bread to donate to local non-profit Bread for the City in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The bread will be baked at Pizzeria Paradiso on Tuesday January 17, 2012, and delivered by owners of both businesses at 9 AM on January 18, 2012.

“We pride ourselves on not just being a great small business in D.C., but also being good community partners,” said Brandon Skall, co-founder and CEO of DC Brau, “Using spent grain to make food to feed the less fortunate is one way that we can give back and honor Dr. King, a man that gave so much of himself for the benefit others.”

The baking process starting on Tuesday uses grains from that day’s brewing process to make fresh loaves of bread. Ordinarily, the brewery recycles the grains with farmers who use the material to fertilize their fields. This time, the spent grain will be used to make bread to contribute in support of the 4,985 households Bread for the City serves each month.

Re-purposing grain to bake bread is a project DC Brau co-owners Jeff Hancock and Brandon Skall, and Pizzeria Paradiso Bar Director Greg Jasgur have been working on for a while.

“We are delighted to partner with another D.C.-based small business,” said Jasgur, “Finding new ways to work together to give back is what makes this project especially meaningful.”

Bread for the City is a local non-profit with the mission of providing vulnerable residents with food, clothing, medical care, and legal and social services. Pizzeria Paradiso is a local favorite among gourmet pizza-lovers, with three locations in the D.C. area.