Newbie Question

Don't know if this is the right area or not, but I am getting into brewing my own beer and reading EVERYTHING to gain knowledge. This really isn't a question about the brewing itself, but about a by-product. Somewhere in my reading of specialty/partial or full grain brewing, someone said to remove the grain bag "throw it away or make dog biscuits with it". Was that just a joke or is it possible to make dog biscuits with the mash?

deanoaz said:

Don't know if this is the right area or not, but I am getting into brewing my own beer and reading EVERYTHING to gain knowledge. This really isn't a question about the brewing itself, but about a by-product. Somewhere in my reading of specialty/partial or full grain brewing, someone said to remove the grain bag "throw it away or make dog biscuits with it". Was that just a joke or is it possible to make dog biscuits with the mash?

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You can make dog treats with the spent grains.

Absolutely possible. People do it all the time. As long as there's no hops in there, it's fine for dogs, and they seem to enjoy it. I've never done it personally since I don't have dogs, but I've given my spent grains to those who do, and my clubmates make spent grain dog treats all the time.

I can't speak to how good it is for a dog, but it's not going to hurt them (as in, is it like candy, ok to eat sparingly, or is it actually something healthy they can eat regularly, that I don't know).

There are a lot of potential uses for the left over grains after a mash. Some people put them into bread, cookies, or even I suppose dog biscuits. Even if you do that there will be a lot of spent grain that will go in the trash. I have had great spent grain cookies and bread and do plan to make some bread at some point but it seems my motivation for doing that is slow to get going.

I give my spent grains to my chickens without any extra prep.

You can do all of the above and more. I tend to just throw them in the compost bin. Plants love 'em too.

Well, I thank you all for your responses. We don't even have a dog, so it was kind of a "what if" question.

Slightly OT, but... are there any grains you wouldn't want to use for making bread or the like for human consumption? I mean, 2-row seems about as basic as you can get, but some grains have been modified & IDK if that makes them unusable for cooking.

Right now, I usually use some CaraPils in all my beers. Is that safe? Would using acidulated malts cause anything to taste sour? Cara/Crystal malts?

Now I am thinking about bacon cookies using some smoked malt...

Spent brewer grains are exactly that. They have no feed value. The carbs are converted for fermenting and the proteins will be trub in the kettle. That leaves no feed value. Distillers grain is different processing which has feed value.

krackin said:

Spent brewer grains are exactly that. They have no feed value. The carbs are converted for fermenting and the proteins will be trub in the kettle. That leaves no feed value. Distillers grain is different processing which has feed value.

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I guess my dairy farming relatives shouldn't be using spent grain then.

http://www.feedipedia.org/node/74

I made dog treats last weekend from this recipe from Deschutes and the dog loves them.