Spent Grain? Make Your Best Friend Cookies!

As far as I know, as long as it's not beer, hops, raisins, onions, chocolate, mushrooms, then it's probably ok. I don't see any problem with rice hulls especially because of the dog food companies that put out flavors like "lamb and rice"

Scruffy1207 said:

As far as I know, as long as it's not beer, hops, raisins, onions, chocolate, mushrooms, then it's probably ok. I don't see any problem with rice hulls especially because of the dog food companies that put out flavors like "lamb and rice"

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Some of the things my dog eats . . . I can't imagine rice hulls would be a problem! (I mean... for someone who can practically devour an entire tree branch . . .)

I believe hops are only dangerous to certain dogs?

And even items from the list above won't hurt a big dog in small quantities. I know that, with chocolate, the purer it is the less the dog needs to be toxic. A standard Hershey's bar wouldn't do much (aside from making clean-up more difficult).

Heck... my dog even comes in chocolate.

Loves Dad's Shoes by malweth, on Flickr

I made these for my two house dogs...now I'm the favorite one again!!! LOL

made a batch recently, dog loves them.

4cups spent grains
6 mini carrots
1 banana
(all blended in vitamixer)
2cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup peanutbutter
Baked for 30min @ 350F
Broke into final pieces and baked @ 225F for 2hrs

Make sure to cook them a really long time so they dry out. My started molding at 2-weeks.

I made a double batch of these put them on the smoker overnight for 8 hours

louie0202 said:

I made a double batch of these put them on the smoker overnight for 8 hours

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That gives me an idea. Put them in my dehydrator next time.

My dogs go completely primate-poo for these treats. Especially if I sub in bacon grease for some of the peanut butter.

you can also try subbing baby food for the peanut butter. I have another treat recipe that calls for peanut butter, but I subbed beef/vegetable baby food instead...worked great!

made these today with my .5 lb spent caramel pils from a tripel extract kit and the dogs love them!

Two things get my dogs excited when I'm in the kitchen. When I'm prepping something, anything, for the grill and when I'm making them 'treats' on brew day. They absolutely know it's for them. I stick to the original recipe and usually toss in a half cup of sugar.

Just finished making them and darn 4 lbs of grain makes a heck of a lot of treats.

Took me longer to make the treats then it did to brew beer. Thank goodness I ran out of flour.

My daughter makes these and puts them in bags with tags. Local humane society sells them at festivals etc., money goes back to the pups.

Passedpawn, what does it say on the back? Can't read it at this resolution.

Anyway, I'll have to make a much smaller cookie. I gave one to my pug, and apparently, he made two messy cookies of his own. Next time, smaller items and less each serving to the puppy.

Vuarra said:

Passedpawn, what does it say on the back? Can't read it at this resolution.

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You can now click that pic above for much better resolution.

BTW, you can buy a million bags for nothing at www.uline.com. Labels were folded and stapled, printed on a color laser onto cardstock.

passedpawn said:

You can now click that pic above for much better resolution.

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*swearword* *swearword* *swearword*

I tried that the first time I saw that and nothing happened... but I did down a few bottles of wine yesterday, so that might not have helped matters much.

Vuarra said:

*swearword* *swearword* *swearword*

I tried that the first time I saw that and nothing happened... but I did down a few bottles of wine yesterday, so that might not have helped matters much.

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I just edited it to add the link to the higher res pic... it wasn't the wine

passedpawn said:

My daughter makes these and puts them in bags with tags. Local humane society sells them at festivals etc., money goes back to the pups.

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Good for you and your daughter, and good for the dogs! You're good people.

Amiaji said:

Dogs, like humans, are carnivors by nature but that doesnt meant that won't like a good spent grain dog biscuit.

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I hate to break to all us meat lovers but those flat teeth we all have in the back of our mouths called molars are ment for mashing grains and veggies, the canine teeth are meant for tearing meat so that makes us omnivores. Even if like me you hardly ever eat veggies.

This'll probably the determining factor that has motivated me enough to get into giving, at least partial mash/steeping specialty grains or maybe even, all grain a bash.

Muttley will be stoked

HbgBill said:

But, I will refuse to feed him vet recommendations. Dogs can't digest grains. Guess what's at the top of the list for most dog foods? Corn..

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Some truth to that, but not applicable to this thread. We mash our grains to make the starch available to yeast, and (is it turns out) to the dogs too!

From the ever-believable webz:

How long do these last? I made a batch about 3 weeks ago and have stored them in Ziploc bags. Would they be ok to give to friends as Christmas presents? My dog only likes chewy treats.

indigi said:

How long do these last? I made a batch about 3 weeks ago and have stored them in Ziploc bags. Would they be ok to give to friends as Christmas presents? My dog only likes chewy treats.

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If you dried them out all the way they seem to last a long time. My dogs love them, and I always have some around. Everytime I run low I do another batch. I is usually about 3-4 weeks between batches.

I dried them in the oven for almost 10 hours til they were totally dry (I think I made them a bit too think) so I'm hoping mold won't be a problem, but I'd rather not find out by hearing about how one of my friend's dogs is dead. Maybe I'll let my sister's perpetually hungry cat try one first and see what happens.

They last a long, long time (afaik indefinitely). I bake at low temp for about 4 hours. I've kept them for 6 months.

I have had mine for months now. Dogs still love them.

thanks for this idea. made a batch last night and my maltese max loves them!! shared it with my other beer forum as well.

My dogs (I have 3) absolutely love my beer biscuits. I mix equal parts of flour and corn meal with 3 or 4 eggs into the spent grain. I'll throw in maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of peanut butter (depending on the size batch). I bake them at 350 for 40-50min then turn the oven down to 200F for about 4-5 hrs. They come out dry as a bone and crunchy. My dogs go absolutely ape **** for them. There is nothing in there that will hurt them. Both vets I have talked to have said it sounds a lot healthier than commercial products available and to keep doing what I'm doing as it doesn't seem to be harming them.

Hell I tasted one. Kinda bland if you ask me...but then again I don't lick myself and pee outside.

Diver165 said:

Kinda bland if you ask me...but then again I don't lick myself and pee outside.

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That should be a signature line...

greendragon said:

that should be a signature line...

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:d

My pup and our friends dogs love these... except for the tiny dogs, because they seem to get diahrea from them. Great recipe!

Sounds like a great idea. No waste there! I'll have to try this with my next batch. Thanks for sharing!

I made these using the spent grains from Edwort's, Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen. So the grain bill was Wheat and Pils. When I took them out of the oven after the 4 hours they smelled (smelt?) great. So, I ate one and, while still warm, they are very good. I imagine, cold they will not be as nice. I think next time I brew this beer I am going to made a pizza dough, but for now I'll just try not to ear any more tonight.

Thanks for the idea and recipe. I have my first batch in the oven now. My ol' Lab is going to love these I'm sure.

My shetland sheepdog loves them. I gave her my spent boddingtons grain treats.

I made a big batch of these yesterday for my girlfriend's dogs and they were MENTAL for them!

Great suggestion!

Any ideas for additions to the ingredients to change them up a bit? I'm making a few batches for presents and would like to change up some of the recipe.

indigi said:

Any ideas for additions to the ingredients to change them up a bit? I'm making a few batches for presents and would like to change up some of the recipe.

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I've done the following, all with no problem:

Making them:

• I bought a silicone dog bone mold. It's fairly expensive ($100).
• Cookie cutters work well. There are ones shaped like dog bones.

Ingredients

• Tablespoon of Parmesan cheese per batch.
• Teaspoon granulated or powdered garlic per batch.
• Food coloring (yellow for "chicken", red for "beef"). Takes much more food coloring than you would think, but it works.

Packaging:

• You can buy a billion simple plastic bags from www.uline.com for about $5
• Get some thick card stock for your printer at office supply store, print a logo or something similar on it, fold it over the top of the bag, and staple.

Ooh, great ideas, thanks! Does the parmesan cheese affect the shelf life at all? I won't be giving them out for a couple weeks but am making most of them today.

indigi said:

Ooh, great ideas, thanks! Does the parmesan cheese affect the shelf life at all? I won't be giving them out for a couple weeks but am making most of them today.

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Does not affect shelf life as far as my dog is concerned.