Tag Archives: food

Spent-Grain Dog Treats

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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.

Hazel, Brew Dog Number One, expectantly awaiting a fresh spent-grain dog treat

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.

Spicy Brown Mustard

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When I think German beer, I think German bratwurst…and then I think sauerkraut and mustard. I’ve never been completely satisfied with store-bought mustard, even the fancy stuff, and so have perfected my own recipe over the last few years. The result is in-your-face, with a fantastic spicy kick from the mustard seeds. I find it interesting that it comes across as horseradish-like, without a single bit of horseradish root.

The recipe is heavily based on a version from The Spruce Eats, but subbing in all brown mustard seed instead of a mix of brown and yellow. I took additional inspiration in the spicing from a recipe at Serious Eats. On the one hand, it’s a fair bit of ingredients; on the other hand, the spices give a complexity that straight-up mustard seeds would not give. I used to add the spices to the simmered liquid ingredients, but for my latest batch I just put them in with the mustard seed and mustard powder. I think I like this revision a bit better, because the aromatics from the spices don’t boil off as much.

The recipe yields around a pint of processed mustard; the mustard seeds swell a surprising amount! The mustard keeps very well in the fridge.

Spicy Brown Mustard

Add to bowl:

  • 1/4 cup + 3 tbs brown mustard seeds
  • 1/4 cup dry mustard powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Boil for 10 minutes:

  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
  • 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

Pour the hot liquid over the mustard seeds and mustard powder; stir, cover, and let this mixture sit for 24 hours. It will swell and increase in volume a fair bit. Next, blend the mixture to preferred consistency (I use a stick blender), put it in jars, and refrigerate. Let the mustard sit for at least two days before using (three is better); the mustard has an initial unpleasant bitterness that disappears pretty quickly.

A good use for extra fruit puree

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I had about 2 cups of raspberry puree left over from the can I added into my in-progress Raspberry Belgian, and was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it. I didn’t want to let it go to waste, but it’s also not really the sort of thing you can use that readily (outside of a smoothie, I suppose, but I think fresh fruit is way tastier for a smoothie).

Suddenly…inspiration! With grilling season well at hand here in southern California, I decided to roll the leftover puree into a nice marinade. My intention was to make something slightly smoky/sweet/spicy, and the end result definitely succeeded!

This was somewhat thrown together, so the recipe below is just general proportions. So, you should probably modify to taste. You could probably substitute any reasonably “hot” pepper into this–we just happened to have some jalapeños in the freezer.

Raspberry Jalapeño Marinade

  • 2 cups raspberry puree (Vintner’s Harvest brand)
  • 1/2 grilled and seeded jalapeño pepper
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 2 tbs. lime juice
  • 1 tbs. minced garlic
  • salt to taste
  • a dash of paprika

Procedure

  • Combine all ingredients, and thoroughly blend using an immersion blender.
  • This produces enough marinade for around 4 large chicken breasts. I cubed the breasts into pieces around 1 or 2 inches across, and let them marinate in the fridge for a few hours. Then, I put the chicken on skewers and grilled over a medium heat. I drizzled extra marinade over the skewers around midway through cooking.
  • The result was really tasty! Interestingly, the raspberry flavor itself didn’t come through that strongly–it was more as a tart accompaniment to the mild heat of the grilled pepper.

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I had a bit of uncontaminated marinade set aside, perhaps a quarter cup total. I mixed this with about a cup and a half of non-fat yogurt, a teaspoon of garlic, a dash of paprika, and a teaspoon of lime juice, for a really tasty yogurt sauce. This made a nice accompaniment for dipping the grilled chicken (as well as the vegetables I also grilled). We have a bit left over, so I think it will be going onto some fish tacos later this week.