Brewery helps to keep deer fed at drought-hit Nottingham park

Ian Wesley, commercial director of Blue Monkey Brewery, said it was one of four local breweries – which run an annual beer festival at city council-owned Nottingham Castle – which was contacted by the authority with a request for spent grain.

Wesley said: “We got an email to say the deer are running out of natural fodder to feed them in the park because of the drought and asked if we would be able to supply our spent grain to keep them going through this period.”

The spent grain is a by-product of the brewing process, created when malt grain is mixed with water and its sugars and enzymes are extracted to create the wort for beer, Wesley added.

He said: “We get lots of unusual requests, but mainly for the finished product.

“This request, it had gone through our minds, that we could actually utilise it in local parks and farms for livestock.

“This helps our sustainability.”

Wesley said breweries needed to keep a track of where their product went for “traceability”.

“I’d be quite happy to do it longer term. Anything to help somebody else is always a positive,” he added.

A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said it contacted local breweries for grain “as it is considered a good supplementary resource for wild deer, as it is a rich source of digestible protein and fibre”, and reminded visitors to Wollaton Park to keep their distance from the animals.

“Due to the extreme weather affecting grass resources, and as a precaution for their food source, the park team looked at an additional supplement for a short period of time, before the natural autumn offering of sweet chestnuts and acorns drop,” a statement said.

“It is important that visitors do not feed the deer, as this could lead to the deer losing their natural wariness of people and seeking out food from visitors which puts the deer and visitors in danger.”