ABSTRACT
Recent advances in biotechnology ensure that brewer’s spent grain (BSG) is no longer regarded as a waste but rather a feedstock for producing several products. Based on this, it is an undeniable fact that BSG has its own potential for sustainable reuse through biotechnological processes. Thus, efficient recycling of BSG requires extensive work towards exploring newer applications and maximizing use of existing technologies for a sustainable and environmentally sound management, more insight is required for large scale utilization, which involves both laboratory and field experiments with proper control processes.Lignocellulosic substrates, being cheap and readily available, have recently gained considerable interest because of their possible use in other processes. However, the utilization of BSG is limited especially in developing countries and new ways of making use of this residue would be beneficial for the process economy. Brewers’spent grain (BSG) is the major by-product of the brewing industry, representing around 85% of the total by- products generated. BSG is a lignocellulosic material containing about 17% cellulose, 28% non -cellulosic polysaccharide, chiefly arabinoxylans, and 28% lignin. BSG is available in large quantities throughout the year, but its main application has been limited to animal feeding, it can also serve as an attractive adjunct in human nutrition.Recently,attempts have been made to use BSG in biotechnological processes, such as in the production of laboratory medium for the cultivation of microorganisms.This research emphasized on the use of brewers spent grain in the production of microbial laboratory medium use for the cultivation of microorganisms.The spent grain was collected from Intafact brewery Onitsha,Nigeria.The spent grain was mixed with crude cassava starch as a gelling agent to formulate a medium that will favor the growth of microorganisms especially fungal organisms, several analysis were ran on the spent grain which include proximate analysis(ash, fiber, protein, moisture, carbohydrate ,fat) , after several trials to formulate a replica of a microbial laboratory medium but this time with waste products of other industrials for cost effectiveness , at a certain concentration of crude cassava starch and specific quantity of spent grain the formulated medium gelled after been sterilized in an autoclave and left to cool, after doing both spread , pour , and point inoculation method ,the formulate medium favored fungal growth faster than bacterial growth ,finally the formulated medium was compared with a standard medium for the cultivation of fungal organisms which is sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) the fungal organisms grew faster and better on the formulated cost effective medium.