Buffalo Trace Distillery and Meridian Biotech are finding new uses for grains high in protein leftover from the brewing process.

The partnership will create dozens of jobs in Franklin County.

We're a industrial biotech company, so we, process, byproducts from fermentation industries, specifically distilleries, into, multi-functional, ingredients and alternative proteins, for specific industries, pet food, aquaculture.

And we have a, fertilizer product as well, specifically in the pet food and aquaculture.

What we're trying to do is provide some clean label ingredients.

So they're multifunctional ingredients.

They help with, certain paladin's, really from a protein aspect.

Our customers are looking for that as something alternative that's more sustainable.

So we're we're trying to provide something as a clean label ingredient, instead of what they're what they're using currently.

This is a partnership that's been culminated over a few few years.

We we started out with some testing of, some of our spent grains and, experimenting and, and, through the years as they have determined that this is successful and creates, you know, good products.

Then we we've expanded that over the years as, we take we bring in all of our raw ingredients, all of our grains, and then we ferment those grains.

And then once it's fermented, we run it through, still a distillation column, and then we separate the grains from the alcohol and those, those grains that have been separated, we call them spent grains.

And those are the grains that, you know, we're going to be working with.

We have a system here where we dry all those grains into a, component and feed for cattle or poultry or, dog food or whatever.

They want to use it for high protein.

And we drive that through our dry houses that we have on site.

The partnership helps us because that gives us another avenue for our spent grains.

So currently, you know, 100% of that gets dried into the the feed and verses.

We'll be able to have another, stream and, you know, utilize the feed for other products.

So we're looking at approximately, 35, high tech paying jobs.

So we're going to be bringing in, certain engineers and, you know, bio process scientists, as well as we're going to be, collaborating with Kentucky State, with their engineering department internships.

So really want to, bring that together as, we, we come here to Frankfort.

They might can construction on the $40 million facility will begin next year.

Officials say it will take about ten months to a year to complete.