Contented Cows (slightly OT)

The famous, and extremely expensive Japanese Kobe beef comes from Wagyu cattle. They are fed a diet rich in saki mash. Wagyu cattle now are being raised elsewhere. One high-end butcher in NYC imports Wagyu beef from Australia. Allen Bros. in Chicago also sells Wagyu beef.Their beef comes from the Yamamoto herd. The herd was originally assembled by the Japanese breeder Shogo Takeda, using full-blood Wagyu from his Japanese farm. Since saki mash is not easily available in the US, these cattle are fed a diet rich in beer and liquor mash. The US Wagyu runs about $US100 per pound for the better cuts. However the Kobe beef in Japan can cost up to about US$ 300 per pound. Properly raised Wagyu is to US Prime ordinary beef as goose foie gras is to chicken livers.

It might be relevant, even if this thread may be OT, but I remember from teenage days that truckloads of the mash from the local distillery (Old Oban) were delivered to farms. I don't know if the beef was improved but it's certainly an old established practice. By the way, it smelled horrible but the cows did not seem to mind!

Not exactly lees, but we give the marc from our winery to the dairy farm attached to the university. We usually advise them to spread the red marc out for a day or so before letting the cattle in, so that they don't get drunk. Apparently they really liked the marc from the fruit intended for sparkling wine, as the very light pressing left a lot of juice behind - the farmer told us the cattle were virtually climbing over each other to get at it.

Until recently the milk from this farm went into the university's cheeses, which we sell through cellar door - but I haven't heard from the cheesemaker whether there was any impact on the quality!

Mash is a lot different then lees though. Beer and Liquor mash is mostly grain that has had most of the starch extracted. No yeast, unless they throw the lees from fermentation in as well.

Andy