Spent grain dog biscuit recipe: Homebrew treats for your best friend
I do my best to compost all my spent homebrew grain, but when the compost pile gets too unwieldy, I’ve had to dump grain in the trash. It’s a sticky, stinky mess.
So I’ve found another way to make use of my spent grains — and it makes my dog Jack and his buddies really happy.
Making dog biscuits out of your spent homebrew grains is an easy way to make snacks for your puppy with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.
And while I can’t vouch for how healthy these treats are — similar recipes are all over the Internet — the dogs love them.
Ingredients:
2 cups spent grain
1 cup flour
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
The recipe make about two-and-a-half dozen medium-sized biscuits.
Start with two cups of spent grain. Be sure to make these treats on brew day or refrigerate the grains and make them in a few days before they get moldy.
Combine all your ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Take a rolling pin and create a dense layer on your counter. Cut out your shapes with a cookie cutter or knife. With Valentine’s Day coming up, we created hearts.
Bake the biscuits at 350 F for 30 minutes to solidify them. Then, turn the heat down to 225 F and bake for additional 3 hours to dry them out and prevent mold growth. Once they cool, be sure to store them in an airtight container.
Jack decided to share his loot and gave treats to his buddies. He was a popular pup on Valentine’s Day!
Great idea!
1Another one: Feed spent grain to your chickens, so you can get more eggs to put in the dog biscuits!
Next in FuzzyBrew’s “Going Green” series…
2Thanks for posting the dog treat recipe using spent grain. I’m making these for Christmas for my grand dogs. Happy Holidays!
3Sure! Hope your granddogs love them.
4I just found this recipe and would love to try it. I make all my own dog biscuits now and think my mutts would love these!!! Only problem is, I don’t home brew and would need to purchase the spent grain. Anyone know where to find some and the cost? Thanks!
5Fran, Go to any local brewery. They are almost all HAPPY to give you their spent grains. Many give to local farmers as feed, but most are more than happy to part with any that you’d like to take. I’ve never had anyone deny me grains, nor have I ever had anyone charge me.
6Does it matter if there were hops used in the brew? I don’t know if they are bad for dogs or not.
7Hops are very bad for dogs, but you’d be getting the spent grains out of the mashtun before hops enter the picture. Hops aren’t added until the boil, so there should be no problem.
Cheers! -mike
8I thought dogs can’t eat peanuts???
9Google it? It says they are poisonous to dogs?
In the oven now….. this is our first time brewing with our all-grain system, and this is a great idea so all those good grains don’t go to waste. Recipe is easy to make-thanks for the great idea. Sure that they will be “Sheba-approved” once they come out of the oven 🙂
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