Spent Grain? Make Your Best Friend Cookies!

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our puppy, a Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever, LOVES these treats. we do a lot of training with her so she gets a lot of treats, and these are among her favs. they're also great because she has to chew them. she tends to inhale a lot of other treats without biting them once. not these guys. thanks for the recipe!
 
been brewing for years. my dogs would bite my ankles if they knew i'd been throwing all the grain out all this time. made the treats finally from the last brew i did from grain for a pale ale. these biscuits are their favorite treats. next beer is a dark, so i'm sure they'll love those treats even more
 
should the spent grain going in be dry, or wet? I dried out about 10-12 cups of spent grain for cooking. My first attempt was these dog treats. I used 3 eggs and normal peanut butter instead of all natural. After the initial baking period, the grain didn't solidify into treats. It is more of a granola like it was before it was baked. Is this salvageable?
 
should the spent grain going in be dry, or wet? I dried out about 10-12 cups of spent grain for cooking. My first attempt was these dog treats. I used 3 eggs and normal peanut butter instead of all natural. After the initial baking period, the grain didn't solidify into treats. It is more of a granola like it was before it was baked. Is this salvageable?

I use it wet/moist... Never had an issue with it binding together either with a single egg and such. Did you use any flour in the treats?

Try another batch exactly to recipe (all natural PB isn't important). Also use the grains without drying them out.
 
I use it wet/moist... Never had an issue with it binding together either with a single egg and such. Did you use any flour in the treats?

Try another batch exactly to recipe (all natural PB isn't important). Also use the grains without drying them out.

This is not rocket science. I use cheap ass peanut butter. I've used wet grain. I've used dry grain. I've packet it hard into the measuring cup. I've loosely scooped it.

They always come out fineand the dogs don't seem to care how I made them.

:)
 
This is not rocket science. I use cheap ass peanut butter. I've used wet grain. I've used dry grain. I've packet it hard into the measuring cup. I've loosely scooped it.

They always come out fineand the dogs don't seem to care how I made them.

:)

It's not rocket science, or brain surgery (or plastic surgery in your case... yeesh!!)... Like with most baking type recipes (IME) it's more of using what it takes to get the end result. Some will use more flour than others, or more grain. Or the grain will be wetter than others, etc. You can tweak it as you like, just try to get the same end result.

For the OP, drying out the spent grain was probably the most critical error.

BTW, using a stand mixer for this makes it stupid easy. :rockin:
 
Well I think I salvaged it. I took the granola mixture and put it in a bowl and added some water, put it back on the sheet and scored it. I am thinking that you either need to use wet spent grain or else add water. Dried grain, 3 eggs, peanut butter, and flour didn't create enough of a paste to bond the treats together. After baking it for 30 minutes at 350 with some water introduced, it bonded better. It was a little crumbly breaking up the scored pieces after it was done baking, but it seems like this was normal.

For future reference, do spent grain recipes usually call for wet grain, or dried grain? It looks like some people freeze the wet grain while others dry it by baking it overnight at a low temperature, which is what I did.

This really *isn't* rocket science, but between last night's first attempt at brewing all grain and today's attempt at dog treats it seems like the process always has plenty of room for error and improvement.
 
weeple2000 said:
Well I think I salvaged it. I took the granola mixture and put it in a bowl and added some water, put it back on the sheet and scored it. I am thinking that you either need to use wet spent grain or else add water. Dried grain, 3 eggs, peanut butter, and flour didn't create enough of a paste to bond the treats together. After baking it for 30 minutes at 350 with some water introduced, it bonded better. It was a little crumbly breaking up the scored pieces after it was done baking, but it seems like this was normal.

For future reference, do spent grain recipes usually call for wet grain, or dried grain? It looks like some people freeze the wet grain while others dry it by baking it overnight at a low temperature, which is what I did.

This really *isn't* rocket science, but between last night's first attempt at brewing all grain and today's attempt at dog treats it seems like the process always has plenty of room for error and improvement.

I haven't tried making these dog biscuits, but since the op's recipe doesn't call for any added liquids, I would assume to use wet grains...

Brewing beer and baking are VERY closely related, they use nearly the same ingredients and (to some extent) the same processes.
 
Success!

My dogs love them!

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Every brew day for me is extended by making biscuits for my dog. My wife even had me get bone shape cutouts for them.
I pretty much follow the recipe from the op except the spent grains are heaping cups.
 
I'm brewing a 1 gallon porter today just so I have some spent grain to make biscuits for the dog we rescued last week. I had seen this thread in the past an I'm glad I finally have a reason to try these.

Cheers
 
So these came out great, at least in the dog's opinion. I've found that jamming one of these in a Kong toy with a bit of peanut butter to seal it in place really keeps her busy for a while.
 
I think brewers might be the greenest group im a part of.
We recycle food grade buckets and old coolers.
We recylce alot of plumbing hardware.
We can never turn our nose down at an old fridge.
Empty kegs yeah we got a use for those too.
We are resposible for a mertic butt load of hops being grown.
and we compost or feed or spent grains to the dogs.
I think that lets us get away with using a little too much water.
 
huntingohio said:
I think brewers might be the greenest group im a part of.
We recycle food grade buckets and old coolers.
We recylce alot of plumbing hardware.
We can never turn our nose down at an old fridge.
Empty kegs yeah we got a use for those too.
We are resposible for a mertic butt load of hops being grown.
and we compost or feed or spent grains to the dogs.
I think that lets us get away with using a little too much water.

And our good cohorts who use their spent cooling water to jump start the washing machine load. Truly inspirational. I LOVE YOU GUYS!
 
I clean all my gear and kegs with my chiller water. What I don't use I save to water my garden or hook a sprinkler to the end and water the yard.
 
weeple2000 said:
For future reference, do spent grain recipes usually call for wet grain, or dried grain? It looks like some people freeze the wet grain while others dry it by baking it overnight at a low temperature, which is what I did.

It just depends on the recipe. I've only made bread and dog treats with my spent grain so far, but I've found a number of recipes that I plan to try. A lot of the Brooklyn Brew Shop recipes call for dry grain, or even spent grain flour. I'm only steeping specialty grains or doing one gallon BIAB recipes, so I don't have a ton of grain, but I'll keep a few cups wet for immediate use in bread and treats, freeze a few cups and then dry the rest. I haven't done anything with the dry grain that I've saved, but I'm thinking about making some pretzels or pizza crust this weekend.
 
my wolf jumped up on counter to get to the last batch i made my rotty was pissed.they both love them a lot.
 
Ok I tried the OP recipe with chunky PB. Great !!

I think they taste really good, I rolled them out a little thicker and I am not sure that the dog will get many of them.
 
I made these a few years ago for a friend with a dog and he said his dog loved them. My wife and I just rescued a chocolate lab (his name is Porter), so I will be making some today after I am done brewing.
 
I make these every brew day but tweaked the recipe to require less ingredients. 4c grain, 1c flour and 1 egg. Dogs go crazy for em like this, so why waste pb?
 
I got a question on this . the hull of barley is not digestible for humans because it is so hard. Is it safe for a dog to eat this hull ? Could it cut up his intestines . Horses can digest it . Another point is that dogs have no use for grains and they are quite bad for your dog . since most of the starches have been converted into sugar in ours then this is less damaging than un mashed grains but still not good for them .
As a small treat probably not bad . but not too much
Check out this before feeding your dog too many grains . http://www.k911.biz/Petsafety/DogFoodNutrition.htm
 
My dog LOVES them. I make them large and instead of scoring and breaking them, I just do them like drop cookies. I plop a big spoonful down, and press into a rectangle shape. They are his favorite treat and he goes crazy for them.

Of course, he also loves deer poop, so I don't think he's very discriminating.

My dog likes poop too. Nasty!
 
MarcusKillian: If they can't digest them.. it simply means they get no value from it... nutritionally.. but, the hulls are GREAT roughage.. for dogs and humans. NO PROBLEM.. does not cut up their intestines. These are TREATS.. not a true food. Hope this helps.

KaSaBis.. What? NO PEANUT BUTTER? This is a mortal sin. :D

yep. I was wondering about that . I know when I was buying some barley to eat , pearled , I read some things that said humans could not digest hulls . I found out the real problem was that humans can not stand the feel of chewing them tough puppies up after I tried a some .
Now I have about 9 pounds of pearled barley that I really do not care much for eating as it takes too long to cook . I am thinking about using it in some beer . But not sure how much to use since it is pearled and not roasted or anything .
Maybe I will just use it to make dog treats .
 
Made these this weekend, the dog gave it two paws up, used bacon grease as my kid is allergic to peanuts so we didnt want him handling the dog treats. Not sure how my beer will turn out but if these are any indication, it will be fantastic.
 
your dog should love your beer.
I have a weird dog that refuses to drink beer . Only dog I ever had that would not drink with me . She does how ever love these treats .
 
My dogs will be happy I found this thread. Thanks for posting this recipe! Too bad I didn't find it earlier.
 
My dogs love them. I have not bought dog treats in over 2 years.

I call them Beer Cookies. All I have to do is whisper Beer cookies and my dogs could be sound asleep at the other end of the house and they will come running. Or if they hear me open the cabinet that we store them in, it has the same response from them.
 
your dog should love your beer.
I have a weird dog that refuses to drink beer . Only dog I ever had that would not drink with me . She does how ever love these treats .

Yeah, I've got a couple of litter mates. The Boy won't touch the stuff, the girl loves it.

I'm sure they'll love the treats, seeing how one (or both) of them got into my brew supplies and ate a pound of my 60l crystal malts.

Can't wait to try these out. SWMBO's a member of an artist co-op... I'm sure they'll get a kick out of 'em, too.

Thanks for sharing the recipe, schweaty!
 
Made for a friends dog! Did three times the recipe amounts. Half with bacon grease, half without. Hopefully she likes them!
IMAG0111.jpg
 
Boxman;
Are you sure that is a dog and not a large rat ?
silly dog , grain is for beer and rodents .
I noticed that canned dog food list brewers grains in the ingredients . Now we know what thew big guys do with their spent grains. I did not figure that they threw them away .
 

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