Spent Grain? Make Your Best Friend Cookies!

I started making these and now my dog and I are the only 2 in the house happy on brew day. Amazing how quick they learn that when I get my kettle, they get biscuits. Thanks for posting this. I follow original recipe but use a dehydrated to make them hard.

My vet prescribed a daily fiber supplement of a half cup of cooked oatmeal for my 13 year old chocolate lab, Chip.

I have been giving her spent grain instead, and she loves it.

I have a question. I would love to try this. My question is when my grain is spent it is still in the mash tun still very wet. Does this matter when mixing it with all the other ingredients or should they be somehow dried out a little. If so how would that be done?

Iceman6409 said:

I have a question. I would love to try this. My question is when my grain is spent it is still in the mash tun still very wet. Does this matter when mixing it with all the other ingredients or should they be somehow dried out a little. If so how would that be done?

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Wet from the tun is fine. I just add flour as needed to get a stiffer/drier consistency. Then a few hours in the oven with low heat dries them out nicely.

I usually let it sit for a while, just so the temp comes down, finish brewing and then make them. If its early, I dry them in the oven like the original recipe, if late in the day, I stick in dehydrator and leave overnight.

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awesome, my sister heard about this on pinterest and ive been curious

Here's a link to BrooklynBrew Shop's spent grain chef page. It also has a recipe for drying the spent grains for storage; http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/category/spentgrainchef/
You can also grind the dried spent grains in a food processor into a course flour for some of the recipes. I'm going to double the pretzel bun recipe to make them big enough & enough of them for buns to put pit bbq'd cheese burgers on! And of course my dark hybrid lager to wash'em down.

billtzk said:

I wonder if these spent grain treats are really good for dogs.

I think the dog food industry would tell us it is fine since their products are mostly comprised of cereal grains too. Probably many vets would say the same.

My dogs love Milk Bone treats, so I'm sure they'd love spent-grain cookies too.

But still... Dogs are carnivores by nature, not herbivores or omnivores. I've recently been feeding raw beef and chicken to my dogs. They go nuts over it. And then afterwards they want a Milk Bone... go figure.

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Actually, dogs, like humans are omnivores, though they are descended from carnivores. Humans and dogs have been living together and sharing food for anywhere from 10 to 100 thousand years. They have been eating grains as long as we have, and are thoroughly adapted to it. Spent grain biscuits should be fine.

I made these from the spent grains of a Cream of Three Crops that I brewed this weekend. My dogs, all 3 of them, love them. I doubbled the batch and ended up with about 5 qts of treats. That should hold them for a while!

Spent Grain Dog Cookies

Do you dry out the grains before making this recipe or can you squeeze as much liquid from the wet grains and use immediately?

Thank you in advance.
Robyn

robyn0123 said:

Spent Grain Dog Cookies

Do you dry out the grains before making this recipe or can you squeeze as much liquid from the wet grains and use immediately?

Thank you in advance.
Robyn

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Don't dry the grains first, but also you don't want them dripping wet. I make these treats only an couple of hours after I've brewed.

what pawn said.

if i can't make them right away, i'll let the grains drip for a few hours, throw them in a zip-lock and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to bake. do NOT leave the grains sitting out at room temp for more than 12 hours. rotting grain does not smell nice.

if the grains are dry, you can add a little water when mixing (or use extra peanut butter, or an extra egg). this recipe isn't an exact science. it's a forgiving recipe, you just want to get in the ballpark. be prepared to deviate/improvise.

I found some human recipes with one for drying spent grains for storage at this link; http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/category/spentgrainchef/
I got them dried in a warm oven (mine's 170F),but 200F is ok too. I cooled them & store'em in 1G size zip lock freezer bags on the pantry shelf. But I do want to get the right size tupperware bin to store them in at some point.
Just big enough to maybe hold 10lbs worth. With some of the recipes,you'll need a coffee/herb grinder to make the needed flour out of them.

Thank you for the responses. I'm looking forward to making the dog cookies.

I thought I'd pass this easy beer bread recipe. I have made it with a dunkelweizen and a rye pale ale. Both turned out wonderful.

Easy Beer Bread
3 cups self-rising flour
3/4 cup sugar
12oz (can) room temp beer

Put in greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, until golden brown.

Regards, Robyn

robyn0123 said:

Spent Grain Dog Cookies

Do you dry out the grains before making this recipe or can you squeeze as much liquid from the wet grains and use immediately?

Thank you in advance.
Robyn

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Do not dry them out too much . I dry mine out in the oven for a while sometimes when I do not feel like doing a lot of squeezing but dried them well once and they fall apart into crumbs . Also do not bake them until real dry . They last a lot longer that way but you end up with a lot of crumbs that you must re moisten and cook again

But if you're gunna use them as is in a recipe,I'd think you want them a bit easier to chew? And when grinding them into flour you def want them dried well. It must be remembered that barley flour absorbs more moisture than wheat flour to begin with.

Strange question, but does anyone know if the original recipe, or some derivative of it would make safe horse treats? I don't have a dog but I have 2 horses. Slim chance that there are many horse owners around this forum, but I thought it would be worth a try.

spent grain, flour, peanut butter and eggs - i'm no expert on horse nutrition but i don't see anything in there that would hurt them, once baked. you can skip the eggs if you want. they aren't essential.

ask your vet?

sweetcell said:

ask your vet?

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Good call, I may just skip the egg and get organic peanut butter. The majority of bagged feeds includes barley or oats of some sort and treats in the ~1oz size couldn't hurt a 1000+ pound animal unless you made it a significant part of their diet.

Is there any type of grain that is either bad for dogs or just don't taste good to them? If I had grains from a stout for example, would that be ok? Thanks

Should be fine. My dog tends toile darker grain beer cookies

Made these yesterday and they are Welsh Corgi approved.

I'm going to dry & save the grains from my next batch of PM Berlin Wheat. when I went to dump them,they smelled a lot like banana bread. Here's a link to drying & using spent grains; http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/category/spentgrainchef/

unionrdr said:

I'm going to dry & save the grains from my next batch of PM Berlin Wheat. when I went to dump them,they smelled a lot like banana bread. Here's a link to drying & using spent grains; http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/category/spentgrainchef/

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you just blew my mind with spent grain flour!

I can't wait for the weekend..daddy goin shoppin! Need EGR valve for my lil tuner,& that herb/spice grinder for makin the flour. I wanna make the spent grain pretzel buns for pit bbq'd burgers.

Batch of Gypsy biscuits in the oven

spent grain flour . Great idea. Next batch of really tasty stuff I plan on making some

I posted some recipes in the cooking & pairing forum. I got a Mr Coffee burr grinder (about the size of a coffee maker) for some 40bucks at Walmart. On the esppresso setting,it makes a nice medium grain flour that works really well. You may have to use a lil more liquid though. Barley flour is some pretty dry stuff. The Romans made their bread out of barley flour.

I didn't read through all 50+ pages of this thread, but this recipe seems to be the most popular on the interwebs. My question is how healthy or unhealthy are these treats for dogs, ideally from a professional source. I've made a batch and the dog loves them, but I wonder if the recipe would be healthier with a protein addition.

I know that they are not "bad" for the dog, but would they be considered nutritious, or just safe to eat?

I'm not a professional, but my opinion is that this is NOT dog food, but it IS better than the supermarket treats that have artifical ingredients that dogs go primate poop over.

I'm thinking to get some spent grains at a local brewery and make some treats for our community fair as I think it's a great idea.

How many treats do you usually get out of the recipe?

Also, since I don't brew myself, I'm thinking of drying the grains first so I can use them later. Has anyone been drying them? What would you suggest is a quick and easy way to dry them?

Thanks for your help!

The oven works pretty fast, but use a low temp.

I've heard a food dehydrator would work, but I never tried it.

I also put them on a baking sheets and directed a fan to blow over them. It took a day or two and you have to mix them up in between.

Outstanding. Gotta try this!

Taurus said:

I'm thinking to get some spent grains at a local brewery and make some treats for our community fair as I think it's a great idea. How many treats do you usually get out of the recipe? Also, since I don't brew myself, I'm thinking of drying the grains first so I can use them later. Has anyone been drying them? What would you suggest is a quick and easy way to dry them? Thanks for your help!

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Go to *********** and search for cooking with spent grain. In the May/June issue this year there was a whole article on cooking with spent grain and drying it out. I dried some out in June, but I can't remember at what temp and for how long.

I have the spent grain site saved. Here it is; http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/category/spentgrainchef/
The drying process is in there somewhere. I put them on cookie sheets with low sides spread out on the sheets. 200F oven,& once an hour turn them over & dpread out again. It takes a few hours,& they're dry & sorta fluffy when dry. Cool & puut in zip lock gallon bags in the pantry. I use a Mr Coffee burr grinder to make flour out of them.

going to make these for my dogs next time I brew!

I just made dog treats (2 cups grain, 1/2 peanut butter, 1 cup flour, 1 egg) and filled a 10x9 pan at about 1/8" - 1/4" thick doggie treats. My dog went nuts for them. Next time I'll do 2/3 cups peanut butter to enhance flavor. Yes, I tried one.

I also made grain bars for humans. My recipe is:
2 cups grain
1 cups flour
1 egg
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup honey
1/3 peanut butter
1/3 almond slivers
1/3 cup chocolate chunks sprinkled on top before baking

Both were laid on cookie sheets and baked at 350 for 30 min then 225F for another 2.5 hours. After the initial baking I scored the treats and spread them out so edges were exposed. They both turned out well. I used a base recipe found online and added all my goodies to the grain bars. The dog treats is a basic recipe also found online.

unionrdr said:

I have the spent grain site saved. Here it is; http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/category/spentgrainchef/
The drying process is in there somewhere. I put them on cookie sheets with low sides spread out on the sheets. 200F oven,& once an hour turn them over & dpread out again. It takes a few hours,& they're dry & sorta fluffy when dry. Cool & puut in zip lock gallon bags in the pantry. I use a Mr Coffee burr grinder to make flour out of them.

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Thanks for posting this! I'm going to have to dry some grain for future use in cooking.

I made the spent grain flour pretzel buns for bbq'd burgers by doubling the recipe & using spent IPA grain flour.
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