Uses for waste water from making gluten

I grind my own wheat flour.   When whatever I make can use a boost of gluten, I make my own gluten out of flour that I have ground myself.   If you are not aware of the process, I make an extremely stiff dough made of just water and flour.   Knead it, then put it under water overnight to soak the starch off of it.   Then knead it underwater to further release the starch.   Then I strain off the water - what is left is gluten.   I then add that to bread dough or whatever I am making that requires a higher concentration of gluten.

I am severely allergic to waste.   Given the choice of buying gluten in the store, or making it on my own - the "on my own" is much much cheaper.   I just hate pouring perfectly good nutrition into a compost - just because I cannot think of a use for it in the kitchen.

I end up with about a gallon of this water twice a month on average.   I cannot use it in foods that I can as wheat can cause what I can to go south.   Without a fridge, I can stews, etc. that are too much to eat in 1 sitting so that there is no waste.   I hate just pouring this water into the compost, and my critters - including chickens - ignore it.  It makes a "beer" after being left out for more than 24 hours.

I tried using it to water plants, but the starch stayed on top of the soil and it smelled like an old shoe.   Mold spread to the plants that I watered with the water and I stopped using it to water plants for that reason.

If anyone has a suggestion on using water that has wheat bran and starch in it, I would be very interested in it.  Each batch of gluten means about 2 gallons of starch/wheat bran water.

Such a great method you have shared!
I add gluten to otherwise while wheat bread to get a better rise,but my bulk supply at Whole Foods is no more.
Well, if you don't want beer, what about adding a vinegar mother?

William Bronson wrote:Such a great method you have shared!
I add gluten to otherwise while wheat bread to get a better rise,but my bulk supply at Whole Foods is no more.
Well, if you don't want beer, what about adding a vinegar mother?

I make vinegar out of pure acetic acid that I buy in 5-gallon buckets.   1 cup of the acid in a 1 gallon container, add water and you have 5% vinegar.   My most common use is in its pure form to clean & sterilize milking equipment.   So I have never made vinegar on my own.

How would you go about obtaining a mother, and how would you go about making it into a vinegar?   I probably would still have to buy acetic acid, but I use so much vinegar for cleaning, cooking, etc., that if the water I am wasting can be used for that - it would be well worth it.

I should mention that I didn't quite describe process accurately.   After the overnight soak, you pour off the soak water and knead it under fresh water until that water is opaque, change the water and keep repeating until the water remains clear when you knead it.

Each water change requires less water because your dough ball gets smaller.   When the water remains clear, you have pure gluten.  And for some reason only known to the gods...  the amount of water you need is different for each batch despite the fact that I always use 1 pound of wheat berries to make the gluten.   This makes enough gluten for 5 loaves of bread depending on the quality of the wheat.

This is also a wonderful test on how good your wheat source is.   I have found that Great River Organic Milling wheat berries I got off of Amazon.com actually produced more gluten per pound of wheat berry than from wheat berries I purchased for more $$$ off bulkfood.com.   I have also noticed that the amount of gluten changes annually.   Since most of my wheat use goes to making bread, whenever I happen into wheat berries that produce a large amount of gluten per batch - I immediately buy several hundred pounds of it.   Since wheat berries keep forever, nothing goes to waste.

I have never made vinegar myself,but an unpasteurized apple cider vinegar might work as starter culture.
Where do you buy your acid BTW?
Finding even agricultural strength vinegar has been hard around here.

Thanks for the more detailed gluten making method. My farmer buddy grows hard  winter wheat,so berries are no problem.
He is also starting a malt vinegar company with a local brewery,so I will ask him about getting a mother .

I have purchased it off Amazon about 4-5 times now.   Amazon offers it in 2 sizes, 1 quart and 5 gallons.  I bought several quarts, then did the math and realized it was FAR cheaper to buy it by the 5-gallons.   And I would use that much in about a year.  But it is nice having the correctly labeled 1 quart size - since it is a poison.   It becomes a sludge when cold but it does not affect it otherwise.   I think the freezing point of acetic acid is around 60°.   The stuff I have is food grade by the way.   If that is not important to you, you can get it cheaper from other places.   Since I use it for milk equipment and in the kitchen, food grade was important to me.  They send a brochure with it, but I never paid attention to it since cleaning milk equipment is considered off-label use.   They send it via FedX and you have to sign for it.  

Here is the amazon link for the 5-gallon bucket:   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KCSBGGC/
And here is the amazon line for the 1 quart:   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KCSBF8Q/

The actual vendor listed on the packing list is:
Duda Energy, LLC
1112 Brooks Street, SE
Decatur, AL 35601
sales@dudadiesel.com
256-340-4866

I plan to contact them directly for the next purchase to see if they are cheaper than Amazon.  

I can tell you this, I don't miss lugging home 5 gallons of vinegar or more from the store monthly.   I use about 1 gallon of washing vinegar (15%) every week that the goats are in milk.  However, I actually use far less acetic acid than 3 cups (the amount to make 15% vinegar) because the stronger acid concentration does a much better job.   I use about 1 cup of pure acid to clean milk equipment weekly instead of 3 cups to make the weakened solution.

William Bronson wrote: Thanks for the more detailed gluten making method. My farmer buddy grows hard  winter wheat,so berries are no problem.
He is also starting a malt vinegar company with a local brewery,so I will ask him about getting a mother .

I am jealous.   There is no local what source near me.   I could get corn or soybean by the bushel from the local farmers.   Sadly, I am not a big fan of corn and would eat soybean only if nothing else on the planet was available and I was on my deathbed due to starvation.

When I was vegan, I made gluten to use as a meat replacer. I used the starch water to thicken soups and stews, and I froze some in one or two cup containers for later use. The broth that I cooked the gluten in was always thickened up with some of the starch water, more veggies added, beans, and some small chunks of the gluten for that day's dinner. Sometimes I would add the starch water to powdered soy milk with some maple syrup, and cook it to make a vegan pudding that my family really loved.  When my kids were toddlers, I would add food coloring to the starch water, cook it until a little thick, and let them use it as finger paint. The paintings were composted when they started to flake. I also experimented with using it to make play-dough, but never came up with a satisfactory recipe.