Spent Grain? Make Your Best Friend Cookies!

BierMuncher said:

Damn Yoop. Yer making it difficult to endure these long winter nights with that beutiful pic.

I'd imagine that lake has some ice fishermen (and women) on it right about now.

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Nope. It's a quiet place with no public access. Our cottage is there. The bass fishing is usually good, even with some little ones like in that picture it's a hoot to catch them.

Everybody's invited to come up and check it out! You have to like fishing, beer and dogs, though.

YooperBrew said:

Nope. It's a quiet place with no public access. Our cottage is there. The bass fishing is usually good, even with some little ones like in that picture it's a hoot to catch them.

Everybody's invited to come up and check it out! You have to like fishing, beer and dogs, though.

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That sound perfect-3 favorite- things-fishing, beer and dogs.

Thanks for this! I have a mini doxie (Porter) also. He and his sisters will love them!

I just saw this thread today-Dammit a day late! I just brewed yesterday! Well, at least I have a good excuse to brew again soon!

Our dog refuses to eat the treats made from grains from a Porter I brewed. I guess she prefers IPA grains!

made some of these today, the dogs are asleep or I'd see if they like them.

Next brew day I'll be trying this. Thanks for the info.

Guys, be careful not to let your dogs eat grain out of the compost if it is rotten. This can give dogs a bad bacterial stomach infection. My wife is an emergency vet and mentioned a few cases she has seen regarding old grain.

A recent batch I made...

duplicate post

Well, the verdict is in.

The dogs pretty much devoured the first pan of treats, so I made 4 more pans today. Now whenever I walk towards the wood stove, i have 2 canines following me.

Tried these today... the Greyhound loves them, the Jack Russell will eat them, only to keep the other dog from having two.

Great thing about these is you can leave them setting out in the cold garage and they just get firmer and dryer.

I've a batch that is 3 weeks old and the three dogs still go bonkers when I yell "It's beer time".

My pups LOVE this recipe!

I make it pretty close to how it is written. My doggies will do almost anything in the world for just one of these. Now I use the standard milk-bone-style biscuits for everyday and the spent-grain-biscuits for the special events. Like going out in the snow...



I know snow is no big deal for most but it is very uncommon in GA...

-Tripod

I gave some of these out for Christmas and have gotten numerous requests for more. I made a triple batch last night, dogs got to enjoy a few this morning.

I may be wrong on this but it is my understanding that since a carnivore's short intestine cannot process vegetable material efficiently, it will eat the stomach contense of it's kill first. This makes a lot of sense.

My cat loves asparagus, but only after it's been nuked in the Wifey's super-secret beer-butter sauce. Might be like digestive juices.

Yay! But unfortunitly my doggies can't have peanut butter...

ZooBrew said:

I may be wrong on this but it is my understanding that since a carnivore's short intestine cannot process vegetable material efficiently, it will eat the stomach contense of it's kill first. This makes a lot of sense.

My cat loves asparagus, but only after it's been nuked in the Wifey's super-secret beer-butter sauce. Might be like digestive juices.

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Talked about this here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/#post937260 (post #26)

and here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/#post938697 (post #37)

While you are correct about wild cannids eating the GI contents of their prey, GI length only as a little to do with it. Dogs are not carnivores, but are omnivores as I discussed above at length. If you are interested in intestine length, the ratios of GI length vs. body length/height for dogs falls between the "cut off values" of strict carnivores (4:1) and herbivores(>8:1) with a ratio of 6:1.

For the record, humans have a ratio of 4:1 just like cats, but cats lack the necessary metabolites to process large quantities of plant materials and must subsist on a high protein diet. Humans and dogs however, are quite able to process and digest large amounts of plant material, especially starches and simple carbohydrates. The very long digestive ratios for animals like horses (12:1) and cattle (20:1) are because they have methods of breaking down and digesting plant materials that humans and dogs are unable to process by using fermentation (like cellulose and lignins).

Of course, that would be awesome if humans could ferment as well... Walk around with your own batch of beer brewing and burping/farting would be more socially acceptable

ZooBrew said:

My cat loves asparagus, but only after it's been nuked in the Wifey's super-secret beer-butter sauce.

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And I thought my cat was the anomaly. She loves fresh steamed asparagus.

I made another batch of these night before last. We were out of all purpose flour and used self rising flour. They seem much lighter and fluffy. I think they might be better.

Anyone else tried this?

AWESOME FIND, one question though. do you use the grains wet or do you let them dry out before mixing?

I use the grains wet or semi-dry. I keep a bowl of grains in the fridge for about a week after brewing to make these, bread, pizza dough, etc. It dries out some over time, but it really does not matter.

deathweed said:

I use the grains wet or semi-dry. I keep a bowl of grains in the fridge for about a week after brewing to make these, bread, pizza dough, etc. It dries out some over time, but it really does not matter.

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Does it start to get sour? I did this for about 3 days then I noticed how sour it smelled and promptly used it as compost.

I have some grains frozen, when I run out I'll be set. Just thaw em out.

SWMBO - Thinks its hamburger. (Freezer is dark) Won't she be surprised when it thaws!!

These are quite tasty. Wait, these are for the dogs???

Mine was a bit dry when mixing and just crumbles when I give it to the dogs (they are small so I break these in two to give to them). Next time I'll try less flour and dry it longer in the oven.

Schlenkerla said:

Does it start to get sour? I did this for about 3 days then I noticed how sour it smelled and promptly used it as compost.

I have some grains frozen, when I run out I'll be set. Just thaw em out.

SWMBO - Thinks its hamburger. (Freezer is dark) Won't she be surprised when it thaws!!

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You know, I was worried about that the first few times I did this, but I have not noticed anything souring in the fridge. I do only give it a week though, and anything unsued by then goes in the flower beds. Freezing works well too, but it takes up valuble space that could be better filled by hops, meat, vodka....

I think I found a new filler for meatloaf. I may have to get druck one day and make a 2-Row meatloaf. When its just me and the dog at home.

I made these Sunday and my dogs and the neighbor's dogs love 'em! I had to add a bit of water and a second egg to get a good mix, but they sure were a hit.

Just for the record...

These things come out looking the same as they did going in...but with more of a tapered end.

BierMuncher said:

Just for the record...

These things come out looking the same as they did going in...but with more of a tapered end.

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I noticed the same thing. So make sure you have a really good crush and spare your dogs bung.

Schlenkerla said:

Does it start to get sour? I did this for about 3 days then I noticed how sour it smelled and promptly used it as compost.

I have some grains frozen, when I run out I'll be set. Just thaw em out.

SWMBO - Thinks its hamburger. (Freezer is dark) Won't she be surprised when it thaws!!

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You might be the one who is suprised when you come home and have spent grain helper for dinner

I'm curious if this works with any grains or if there's some that don't work as well. Chocolate malt? Roasted barley? Flaked oats?

I don't use grains from my darker beers, just because. No reason, just because.

Do you use the grain wet or do you have to dry it in the oven first?

crazyboy said:

Do you use the grain wet or do you have to dry it in the oven first?

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Use them wet. Easier to mix. If I can't get to mine right away, they go into a plastic bowl with plastic wrap into the fridge.

Then I take them out and nuke them for about a minute or so to bring back up to room temp.

The only grist I'll avoid is if I have an unusually large amount of rice hulls.

Course...they would take care of that K-9 sphincter itch and save my carpets.

I make them as I brew, just use them wet as can be, if not you have to add liquid back to the mix.

Gawd, I sound like a hill-billy don't I?

I give mine to my father, he uses the grains as a natural filter for his Koi pond.

zac said:

Gawd, I sound like a hill-billy don't I?

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I don't be knowin if'n there's a hifone in hillbilly you hillbilly.

runNaked, how does he use them for a filter? My parents have a Koi pond as well and it would be nice to use the spent grains for this as well.

MikeG said:

These are quite tasty. Wait, these are for the dogs???

Mine was a bit dry when mixing and just crumbles when I give it to the dogs (they are small so I break these in two to give to them). Next time I'll try less flour and dry it longer in the oven.

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I found them a bit dry, too. Now I add more egg so there will be more liquid to get a smoother mix. It's messy as hell to work with but they come out way better and more consistent in the end.

Also, I skip the cookie cutter and just score the mixture into 1" squares (like a grid) once it is spread out onto the cookie sheet. If I am patient (HA!) I can get about 128 treats from the few grains I have from a 5 Gallon Extract-w/-Grains recipe...so that's like a pound or 1-1/2 at the most with excellent yeild for the treats.

-Tripod

One more question... how thick do you usually press the layer in the pan?