Beer Goes to the Dogs

My husband home brews. That being said, we are not “beer snobs,” I seriously hate that word. We’re beer enthusiasts. I still buy PBR at the bar but prefer Saisons or Doppelbocks at home.

 

This past weekend my wonderful husband did many things. He wanted to make a Saison but unable to find the correct yeast, he settled for a Belgium Strong Ale. Before all of this though, he went to Home Depot and constructed himself a little table for a place to host his brewing magic.  

After inquiring the calorie content of his beer, he saw the pleading in my eyes for a low-calorie home brew. Despite stating “There’s no such thing as a low-calorie home brew,” he took my pleading eyes as a challenge and ending up making another smaller batch of beer based off a English Blonde that should be around 150 calories.

All this commotion (our home smells delicious) created a lot of spent grain. I hate to see things go to waste so I made my Beer Nuts dog treats (which barely put a dent in the amount of spent grain). This recipe is everywhere on the internet but here it is again:

4 Cups Spent Grain

4 Cups Flour

1 Cup Peanut butter

1 Egg

I toy with the idea of swapping out PB for pasta sauce or bacon grease, someday. So you combine all the ingredients, mix, mix, mix. Then roll out as thin as you can and you can cut shapes or whatever but make sure you score them. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes then bake 8-10 hours @ 225. The grain is thick if you don’t bake long enough the cookies will mold over in no time.

Last night my dog got his homemade treats. This isn’t the first time I made them for him and it won’t be the last, but every time, he eats the treats so quickly I question whether he tasted them. He loves these things and his big brown eyes are appreciation enough for me to continue making treats that take almost a whole day to make. What grains we don’t use for dog delicacies I plan to give to our neighbors for chicken feed. If we had a garden or compost heap, that is where spent grains would rest.

 

So to anyone who thinks my dog is spoiled, I would say you are correct sir!