Spent Grain? Make Your Best Friend Cookies!

I have to freeze it so I can wait to cook it when the wife isn't around. She hates the smell of malt (brewing or baking). It's been worse since she has been pregnant.

Just let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Then measure as normal.

schweaty said:

On the topic of food, I don't have much of a choice for our mini-doxie's. They will only eat Kibbles and Bits. Every time we try something else they go on a hunger strike! Experts aren't kidding when they say dachshunds are a very stubborn breed. I think I am going to try and switch them to the wellness brand next time we buy dog food. Hopefully they respond well to it.

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Mix in the new stuff with the old stuff to transition. Start with something like 75% old food, 25% new for a week, then bump it up 25% until they are eating the all new stuff.

schweaty said:

I think I am going to try and switch them to the wellness brand next time we buy dog food. Hopefully they respond well to it.

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Wellness is a great dog food. Thats what I always give them. I switched them to the core brand though. My pit/chow chow mix had mean gas so my doctor thought it had way to much grain in the food so I switched her to a more meaty dog food with more protien.

I hope her gas doesnt get to bad when I make these treats....

jonbomb said:

Wellness is a great dog food. Thats what I always give them. I switched them to the core brand though. My pit/chow chow mix had mean gas so my doctor thought it had way to much grain in the food so I switched her to a more meaty dog food with more protien.

I hope her gas doesnt get to bad when I make these treats....

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It's not a bad idea to have their bloodwork checked regularly if you are going to go to a high protein diet. Of our 4, we only have one that could tolerate it over a long period of time. I usually mix the Core with a bit of a more "mainstream" dog food - something with a bit more grain to make sure she gets the fiber (or I add pumpkin to her meals). Some dogs do best on high protein, but especially as they get older, this can take a toll on their kidneys, liver, etc.

Can I let them sit in a pot with the lid on overnight?? or maybe even a day or two before i do it?? whats the best way to preserve it because I dont have time till saturday night to do it.

Heh, I let mine sit in the oven for days. I mean you're making dog food basically. Last I checked my dogs would eat raw cat **** without much argument, 4 day old spent grains I can't imagine that's gonna bother them.

Plus you cook them so any nasties that propagate in that time will be just that much more protein in the final product.

sounds good to me. in the basement in a pot they go!

they're gonna start to rot. Use them or freeze them. Plus, you're really not gonna like the smell in a day or so.

B

for a few days, i would just put them in the fridge.

Ok When i get home from work I will throw them in a bag and freeze them.

dndlyon said:

It's not a bad idea to have their bloodwork checked regularly if you are going to go to a high protein diet. Of our 4, we only have one that could tolerate it over a long period of time. I usually mix the Core with a bit of a more "mainstream" dog food - something with a bit more grain to make sure she gets the fiber (or I add pumpkin to her meals). Some dogs do best on high protein, but especially as they get older, this can take a toll on their kidneys, liver, etc.

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I don't no but we mix the core with this new dogfood chef michaels. I usually do get blood work taken regulary like every year.

Made these up for the pups. They love 'em! Thanks for the tip!

OT: One of my dogs found my spent grain pile in the yard. He ate quite a bit of it before the GF found out what he was eating. He had the worst beer farts today and his poop looked like a granola bar! I laughed my butt off! LOL

I brewed up a batch this weekend planning to make dog biscuits, but I didn't have a chance to get to it because the brewday went long with some complications. I saved four cups of spent grain in a sealed plastic bowl and put it in the fridge; will it be ok to use to make the biscuits this weekend, or should I toss it because of possible spoilage/mold growth/whatever? It's still pretty moist in the bowl.

Well, if you don't see any mold I wouldn't sweat it.

I thought I was doing my dog a favor by making these things and he absolutely hated them, wouldn't touch them.

I love this recipe; it gives me something to do while the wort's cooling, and my Bernese Mountain Dog can't get enough of them.

Of course, he also likes mulch, but I like to think these are tastier.

jonbomb said:

Thats way to expensive for me. Do you cook the meat??

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I boil chicken so that it is thoroughly cooked. I pan-fry beef quickly to sear it and take the chill off it, but it is mostly raw. These are the two main meats my dogs have been eating now for a couple of years. I also give them boiled liver. For carbs, they prefer boiled white rice over everything else.

My dogs are old and they are chihuahua's so they don't eat much. I don't find it to be expensive to feed them. I buy meats at Costco, portion them into two or three meal portions, vacuum bag them, and freeze them. Then I just thaw out meat as needed. I feed them twice a day.

billtzk said:

I boil chicken so that it is thoroughly cooked. I pan-fry beef quickly to sear it and take the chill off it, but it is mostly raw. These are the two main meats my dogs have been eating now for a couple of years. I also give them boiled liver. For carbs, they prefer boiled white rice over everything else.

My dogs are old and they are chihuahua's so they don't eat much. I don't find it to be expensive to feed them. I buy meats at Costco, portion them into two or three meal portions, vacuum bag them, and freeze them. Then I just thaw out meat as needed. I feed them twice a day.

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Have you tried frozen beef nuggets? My dog loves it when they're frozen, though she is much bigger and likely has a much stronger jaw than some ageing chihuahuas.

No, I haven't tried those. I haven't actually ever heard of them. I'll look for them in the store. Are they breaded, or just plain meat like stew meat?

My girls love fried chicken tenders, fried boudin balls, and pizza bones, but those are all very rare treats, as I don't think that sort of food is really good for them.

Oh sorry, 'frozen beef nuggets' aren't a brand, just what I was calling chunks of cut up, frozen beef My dog loves to chew, so she loves the fact that she has to chomp on the frozen meat for a bit before swallowing it.

I just made a 4x batch of these. My house smells great. The local pet shop has interest, so I'm going to take some there. Maybe I can offset some of the cost of the $50 bags my dogs eat.

Grinder12000 said:

My label for by Doggie Beer Bars says "Better Then Poop". Only dog lovers get it. LOL

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Well THEN you better fix that label.... it is Better THAN Poop.

Or did you mean to say that it is Better, Then (it becomes) Poop?

I have what may be a silly question and I'll admit that I did not read through the entire thread...

Are there any grains that could be harmful (i.e. choco malt)? I know dogs can't have chocolate but I am assuming chocloate malt is not really the same as chocolate.

TIA,

John

Did someone say "treats"?!?!

hops bad, all the grains good.

ok folks, dumb newb question, but, when you say "spent grain" are you referring to the grain you are malting yourself, or specialty grain you are steeping? or doesn't it matter. I'm very new to brewing and I'm trying to get my terminology straight, plus, I'm not to the point yet where I'm brewing all grain batches (just brewed my first batch today). I have spent specialty grain that I steeped in at first...can I use that to make treats for my pup?

(please forgive me if my terminology is incorrect - still learning).

'Spent Grain" is the grain left ovr in your mash tun after you have completed your mash and drained all of the wort. It is all grains...base, specialty and otherwise.

Yes. You can use specialty grains. I made the dog some of these treats with C-40 grains I steeped for a pale ale. The dog absolutely loved these treats. They are quite tasty to my K9 companion.

Created about three batches of these for dogs from a Great Pumpkin Ale, but am starting to think that I'm just going to begin adding brown sugar, more peanut butter, chocolate chips, possibly honey and maybe self-rising flour and making brew-day treats with them! The dogs'll just hafta keep eating grass and whatever they find on the floor! :fro:

last batch of porter resulted in a very happy Doberman.

made some yesterday, the dog wasn't sure at first, but now he loves them. Got to admit I was hungry when I pulled them out of the oven, so I tried one. They are better than the nature valley bars my mom use to give me as a kid

awesome, epic thread. Did this last weekend's brew day with the remains of a brown ale. 2-row, 60L cara, and choco.

... and I don't even have a dog. Gave them to my friends with dogs and they all loved them.

FYI... No one seems to make dog bone shaped cookie cutters... go figure. I used a shamrock and cut them in half. Half a shamrock is pretty close to a dog bone, lol.

that's a much better idea than tossing it out back and your dog eats it plain and has an accident in the house later that night oops

Malintent said:

FYI... No one seems to make dog bone shaped cookie cutters... go figure. I used a shamrock and cut them in half.

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They are around - go to Petsmart or Petco and you should find em.

brrman said:

They are around - go to Petsmart or Petco and you should find em.

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Very timely. I made another batch of these for my boxers this weekend and my 5 year old was helping me. I just make rectangle shaped treats, but she wanted to make them shaped like bones.

I told her that it would take too long to do bones because I didn't have a cutter shaped like a bone. Her response was, "Bones will be easy. It's just a rectangle with the ends shaped like butt cheeks."

Which is true... but I don't have a butt cheek shaped cookie cutter either.

Walker said:

Very timely. I made another batch of these for my boxers this weekend and my 5 year old was helping me. I just make rectangle shaped treats, but she wanted to make them shaped like bones.

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My girl was obsessed with making shapes too must be a woman thing, so she did Halloween shapes and dog bones.

One thing she started doing was making the shapes and putting them on parchment paper. She's the cookie person around here. I was having a BEAST of a time with these things sticking in greased pans. My cookies were an awful, ugly mess.

Not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread but I will never make these without parchment paper again! We probably bake about 10-20 lbs of these things a month--my boxers love them, they're like scooby snacks!

I don't know how I've missed this thread!

My Lab will be quite excited after the next brew: Oatmeal Stout. What's even better is that my SWMBO is excited about it. Anytime she supports the brewing I win.

Thanks for sharing!

shroomzofdoom said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread but I will never make these without parchment paper again!

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I've never had any issue with them sticking, and my cookie sheets are beat to hell and back. *shrug*

shroomzofdoom said:

We probably bake about 10-20 lbs of these things a month--my boxers love them, they're like scooby snacks!

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Both of my boxers have become poster children for Pavlov's classical conditioning experiments. As soon as I walk in the door from work, they run to the kitchen and the big one starts dripping drool on the floor 'cause they know I'm going to walk in, kiss the kids, grope the missus, and then give them one of these things.

Got my batch in the oven right now. Our Boston was trying to jump up to the counter to see what was so delicious that I was making.

My chocolate lab Guinness thinks they are puppy crack

She sits at the edge of the kitchen and repeatedly glances from me or SWMBO or whoever is in the kitchen to the top of the fridge...I'll give you three guesses as to what is on the fridge & the first 2 don't count!!!

She was sniffin, twitchin, and barkin in her sleep while they were in the oven. Gave em out to friends to see if other dogs liked em as much (Guinness is not very discriminating; she eats cat ****!!!)...everyone loved them, even the "picky" dogs.

Now I am making tons for Christmas presents. Epic thread and thank you sooooo much from all the dogs we know:rockin: