All-grain brewing generates spent grains, and it can be a challenge to deal with them outside of tossing them in the trash. Composting the grains seems to be the best course for my household, although during times of frequent brewing that’s a lot of grain going into the compost barrel. Spent-grain bread is unsatisfying to me, too, because the husks make the product coarser than is really appetizing. So, dog treats are my go-to kitchen use for spent grains.

First, some notes. Hops are very toxic to dogs, so you should never use the grains from anything that had mash-hopping or any other cases where hops might have gotten mixed in with the grains. Second, a little bit of spent grain goes a long way in this recipe. So, dog treats will never be a primary destination for spent grains resulting from a typical batch, unless you are making industrial quantities. Think of it as a fun novelty and something to do as a post-brew activity. If you have kids around, they might love helping!

This recipe is identical to others floating around out there; my version is based on one posted by the Crafty Beer Girls, hosted at the Red Rock Brewing website. The original version creates a ridiculous quantity, so I halved it and still got more than 40 individual treats. Although these are relatively healthy, we try not to load our dog up with too many treats, so a single batch lasts a long time for us.

Spent-Grain Dog Treats

• 2 cups spent grain
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling out the dough)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg

Procedure

• On brew day, I set aside a few cups of spent grain. The grains will keep for up to a week or so in the fridge, but shouldn’t be held longer than that.
• I preheat the oven to 350°.
• In a large bowl, I mix the ingredients by hand until the texture is uniform. Then, I split the dough in half and roll each half out on a floured counter or baking mat. The peanut butter makes things somewhat sticky, so the flour is definitely a must.
• I roll the dough fairly thin, between 1/4 and 1/2 inch max.
• Using a cookie cutter, I cut out the treats. I like a medium-sized bone shape, but it doesn’t much matter. I do like to avoid any shapes that have sharp edges or corners, just to make them easier or the dog to munch on. It all depends on the size of the dog that will be doing the eating!
• I place the treats on a baking sheet; these treats do not expand during cooking, so you can place them super close together. There is no need to grease the baking sheet, either; the peanut butter takes care of that.
• Any scraps left after cutting can get combined and re-rolled, to use up all of the dough.
• Bake the treats at 350° for 30 minutes, before dropping the oven to 225° and baking another 2 hours. This dries out the treats and gets them ready for storage.
• Once the treats are done, pull them from the oven and let them cool. They’re ready to eat now! Extras can be kept in an air-tight container or freezer bag. I store them at room temperature, and they keep for months.
• Depending on the size to which you cut the treats, you can get 40 to 60 pieces out of a single batch.

Images above show my most recent batch of treats from mixing (upper left), rolling (upper right), waiting to bake (right), and a few examples of the finished product (bottom). This particular grist was from a pilsner that was 96% pilsner malt and 4% CaraFoam.