So far, it seems pretty effective:
Every week, Darwin Brewing Company in Bradenton needs to get rid of thousands of pounds of soggy barley.
Known as spent grain, the cracked kernels are a byproduct of making beer, each a little bigger than a grain of rice. Usually, farmers haul off totes of the grain for their livestock to eat, said Blue Hellenga, Darwin’s head brewer. But more recently, some of it has gone to a new destination at the nearby Mote Marine Lab.
Researchers there are trying to find ways to thwart Red Tide, a scourge for Florida’s Gulf Coast. They believe the used grains could hold an answer in molecules that stunt algal blooms. Red Tide kills fish in droves and forces sunbathers off the beach. Besides the putrid smell, it causes breathing problems.
So Mote researchers discovered that enzymes remaining in the spent barley stops the organism behind red tide, if delivered in time - before the bloom really gets underway. Seems like a big win for brewers and for Florida tourism.