What does draff mean?
Draff is the leftover material from the brewing and distilling process: the spent grain and husks that remain once the sugars have been extracted during mashing. Rather than being discarded, this residue has long been valued as a nutritious animal feed, and breweries and whisky distilleries — especially in Scotland — traditionally sell it to nearby farms for cattle and pigs. By extension, the word can be used figuratively to mean any worthless residue or dregs, though this sense is now largely confined to older or literary writing. Draff belongs to the same family of words as "draft," both tracing back through Old English to a Germanic root connected with drawing or drawing off liquid. Today it survives mainly in agricultural and trade contexts, giving it a distinctly rustic, technical character that makes it a useful word precisely because it names something ordinary language otherwise struggles to describe.
nounThe husks and residue of grain left over after malting or brewing, used chiefly as animal feed; more broadly, any worthless refuse or dregs.
- The residue of grain (husks and spent malt) remaining after mashing or brewing, used mainly as livestock feed.
- Figuratively or archaically: worthless matter, dregs, or refuse.
"The brewery sold its draff to local farmers as cattle feed."
"Each morning the distillery carted its warm draff across the road to the pig farm."
"He dismissed the manuscript as literary draff, fit only for the fire."
Draff is an uncountable mass noun and does not normally take a plural form; quantities are expressed as 'some draff' or 'a load of draff'.
"The farmer collected several loads of draff each week."
Before modern waste systems, breweries made a tidy profit selling their draff to farmers — the slop left after brewing literally fed the countryside's pigs and cattle.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of draff
Draff descends from the Old English dref (or draf), meaning dregs or lees, which itself derives from a Germanic root associated with drawing off or draining liquid. It is cognate with similar forms in other Germanic languages, including Old Norse, and is related to the word "draft" (itself a variant of "draught"), which shares the underlying sense of drawing or drawing off. The word has been applied to brewing residue since at least the medieval period and remains current in Scottish distilling terminology.
Related word forms
How draff is actually used
Draff is now rare outside agricultural, brewing, and distilling contexts — particularly in Scotland, where whisky distilleries still speak of selling draff as feed. It carries a slightly archaic or technical flavor and is almost never heard in everyday speech. The figurative sense ('worthless stuff') is dated and largely literary.
Easily confused with draff
"Draft" means a current of air, a preliminary version, or the drawing of liquid, while "draff" refers to the leftover grain residue from brewing or malting.