The wet biomass brewer's spent grain was subjected to hydrothermal carbonization to produce biocoal. Mass balance considerations indicate for about two thirds of the organic carbon of the input biomass to be transferred into the biocoal. The van Krevelen plot refers to a high degree of defunctionalization with decarboxylation prevailing over dehydration. Calorific data revealed a significant energy densification of biocoals as compared to the input substrate. Sorption coefficients of organic analytes covering a wide range of hydrophobicities and polarities on biocoal were similar to those for dissolved humic acids. Data from GC/MS analysis indicated that phenols and benzenediols along with fatty acids released from bound lipids during the hydrothermal process constituted abundant products. Our findings demonstrate that the brewer's spent grain by-product is a good feedstock for hydrothermal carbonization to produce biocoal, the latter offering good prospects for energetic and soil-improving application fields. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.