r8rphan
Well-Known Member
What do you do with the spent grains?.. I was thinking of giving it to my dogs, mixing it in with their regular food..
Any reason why I shouldn't?
Any reason why I shouldn't?
Dogs and used grain....
- Thread starter r8rphan
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Windigstadt
Well-Known Member
Maybe it'll be different with your dogs (or maybe it'll be different if you only give him a small volume of the spent grains) but one of the first times I brewed all-grain I dumped the grains in my garden and unbeknownst to me my 85-lb. collie mix ate most of them when I let him outside. He then proceeded to throw most of it up over the course of that evening. Not fun...
My dog runs right to our compost heap and starts eating whatever fresh spent grains are on top. I think have a gassy dog that will poop out grain.
You could make treats out of them the recipe is on here somewhere.
You could make treats out of them the recipe is on here somewhere.
KUbrew
Well-Known Member
I used to save a gallon ziplock bag and give my dog a little bit with dinner everyday. But this got old after a while. Now I just give her a couple of cups to eat while I'm brewing, use a couple cups for dog treats and toss the rest.
nothing wrong with it...just use sparingly, as in a small treat once or twice a day.
Dogs are carnivores, and grains (carbohydrates) can wreak havoc on their digestive systems...and if they get too much they store the excess carbohydrates as fatty deposits in their liver and other tissues....leading to future problems with obesity, system failure and such. They can also come down with acute maldigestion because dogs (being carnivores) often lack enough enzymes (amylase) to properly break down large amounts of carbohydrates...leading to excessive gas, bloating, and diarrhea.
Dogs are carnivores, and grains (carbohydrates) can wreak havoc on their digestive systems...and if they get too much they store the excess carbohydrates as fatty deposits in their liver and other tissues....leading to future problems with obesity, system failure and such. They can also come down with acute maldigestion because dogs (being carnivores) often lack enough enzymes (amylase) to properly break down large amounts of carbohydrates...leading to excessive gas, bloating, and diarrhea.
r8rphan
Well-Known Member
How do you make the dog treats?
brrman
Well-Known Member
Mix with flour and peanut butter until you have a nice firm ball. Then roll out and bake on a cookie sheet until completely dry. Pretty simple. There is a recipe in the forums somewhere. My dogs freak out for em.
r8rphan
Well-Known Member
I bet! What kind of ratio PB/grain?
I pretty much followed a recipe from another thread...added some fish oil for additional goodness...stunk up the house for a few days...then the refrigerator for a few months....and the dogs had gas the first few days.
But it made them happy to get treats, made me happy to know every ingredient in them.
best of luck...and give 'em a pat on the head for me!
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
- Messages
- 6,841
- Reaction score
- 857
Not sure, but I'd think that since these are spent grains that they have few carbs left. Basically just roughage that'll make'em poop.
I agree with the "use sparingly" part!
D_Struct
Well-Known Member
My wife makes dog treats (from a recipe on this board) with my spent grains, and he LOVES them!
You just have to make sure to cook as much of the moisture out as possible, otherwise, they'll grow mold quickly.
You just have to make sure to cook as much of the moisture out as possible, otherwise, they'll grow mold quickly.
brrman
Well-Known Member
I really never measure anything. Typically just keep adding PB to the mix until you get a nice sticky ball of grain.
BTW guys - be careful of letting your dog eat from the compost pile - if your compost is not optimal there will be certain bacteria in that grain that can be harmful to the pooch. I don't let my dogs eat from ours because we don't pay much attention to optimizing the ratios of what goes into it (carbon vs nitrogen) - thus it does have nasties in it. If it is not balanced it simply becomes a pile of rot.
Brewer's spent grains are greater than 45% carbohydrate on a dry matter basis. Mostly of the polysaccharide variety, but also a bunch of monosaccharides left, too. By comparison spent grains contain around 20-25% proteins and 10% lipids....but that is another topic all together.
bwomp313
Well-Known Member
Babachewy
Active Member
I used to give my dog a cup of spent grains, but then she farts all night, so I stopped.
Harvestsmiles
Well-Known Member
Here's the link to the dog treat recipe here on HomeBrewTalk:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/
My dog doesn't like peanut butter
so I haven't given them a shot but I think the other 99.9% of canines would probably LOVE them...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/
My dog doesn't like peanut butter
so I haven't given them a shot but I think the other 99.9% of canines would probably LOVE them...r8rphan
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the link to that thread.. Just finished reading all 34 pages of it.. LOL
I was planning on getting onto making my own bread from scratch after I got the AG beer thing to a point where it is fairly routine...
Now I find out that I can make bread from the spent grains.. And that I can make energy bars too! This is 'great!'
Gonna make a batch of the doggie treats tomorrow.. and maybe make a lot of them and sell them through my local vet (possibly trade them for vet services), as well as give them as gifts, etc...
Picked up some flour and peanut butter today.. I can use it to replace a couple old jars in the pantry which have started to smell a little stale...
This is 'great!' and I'm really glad I asked about this!
Thanks!
I was planning on getting onto making my own bread from scratch after I got the AG beer thing to a point where it is fairly routine...
Now I find out that I can make bread from the spent grains.. And that I can make energy bars too! This is 'great!'
Gonna make a batch of the doggie treats tomorrow.. and maybe make a lot of them and sell them through my local vet (possibly trade them for vet services), as well as give them as gifts, etc...
Picked up some flour and peanut butter today.. I can use it to replace a couple old jars in the pantry which have started to smell a little stale...
This is 'great!' and I'm really glad I asked about this!
Thanks!
OK, admittedly I did not read all the threads that went all over the landscape regarding feeding spent grains to pets. But seriously is not the holy fungus boiled out of this stuff and we could say it's nutritional value is about zero, and such spent grains would be turned away on all shores of the African Continent?
Well maybe not. My chickens will not eat it. I have a dog that eats gravel that will not eat it. We tried to make bread out of it, and it was truly disgusting. My neighbor has goats and they WILL eat the spent grain. They also ate the red paint off a shed he built, so they are not too picky.
Honestly I am all for recycling and conservation but by the time I get my brewing out of the grains I buy, they are shot. They are sawdust for all practical purposes. I guess I could drip some chicken broth on the crap and maybe one of them (dogs) would consume it.
What makes anyone think there is nutritional value to poultry or beef or whatever in these waste grains? THERE IS NONE! Seriously. Do your homework! I'll drink my strong Belgium Ale with a bloody red steak and enjoy the **** out of both, you hypocrites.
Well maybe not. My chickens will not eat it. I have a dog that eats gravel that will not eat it. We tried to make bread out of it, and it was truly disgusting. My neighbor has goats and they WILL eat the spent grain. They also ate the red paint off a shed he built, so they are not too picky.
Honestly I am all for recycling and conservation but by the time I get my brewing out of the grains I buy, they are shot. They are sawdust for all practical purposes. I guess I could drip some chicken broth on the crap and maybe one of them (dogs) would consume it.
What makes anyone think there is nutritional value to poultry or beef or whatever in these waste grains? THERE IS NONE! Seriously. Do your homework! I'll drink my strong Belgium Ale with a bloody red steak and enjoy the **** out of both, you hypocrites.
r8rphan
Well-Known Member
Hey mang, why you gotta poop on our parade?:fro:
Maybe if you had read the thread, you would have found that someone posted information on the nutritional value of the spent grains... and that companies like coors sell their spent grains to pet food companies, and that milk bones uses it in their products...
I totally don't get the hypocrite comment..
r8rphan
Well-Known Member
Okay.. made my first batch of these things... This is 'way' too easy!
Used a little less flour and added about 3 fork fulls of bacon grease... Sprayed two cookie sheets with pam and put about 25 cookies on each.. Baked at 350 of 30 mins, and they are now drying at 225..
My youngest dog (Molly the Weimaraner), 'eagerly' licked the bowl and the spoon clean.. so I'm thinking she's gonna love these things.. I'm sure the older one will too...
Used a little less flour and added about 3 fork fulls of bacon grease... Sprayed two cookie sheets with pam and put about 25 cookies on each.. Baked at 350 of 30 mins, and they are now drying at 225..
My youngest dog (Molly the Weimaraner), 'eagerly' licked the bowl and the spoon clean.. so I'm thinking she's gonna love these things.. I'm sure the older one will too...
How about your read the thread and stop speaking from where the sun never shines ?
My friend's chicken eat them (so there's a hole in your argument right there), and because of the high amount of protein (one more hole) in them, the chickens produce more eggs and I end up getting free eggs. Eggs for spent grain seems like a very very beneficial trade imho.
hahah! Never in a million years did I think I would see this post. I have JUST started brewing outside and my wife has been screaming at me that the dog is gonna die if he eats 9 lbs of spent grains. But my dog freaking loves the stuff and I always let him have a few good minutes eatting it! 
I say let em eat! He usually sleeps afterwards.
I say let em eat! He usually sleeps afterwards.
r8rphan
Well-Known Member
Well, I just took one and gave half to each dog.. I bow have their 'full' attention! LOL
Similar threads
