Aug. 31, 2012
My dog’s first taste of beer came at an early age. Ever the
curious puppy, she knocked over a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon at a kickball game
and took a few cautious licks of the golden stuff that beaded up on some blades
of grass. We snatched her away from the growing puddle, but those few drops of
Wisconsin goodness stayed with her. To this day, whenever someone pops a can of
PBR, her puppy sense begins to tingle and she wanders over for a sniff.
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| Kyle Velvis, left, and Mark McDonnell hard at work making Beaver Balls. Photo courtesy of BrewSki Bones. |
I am aware that beer is not something we should be giving to
our pup. The hops that make our favorite brews so aromatic and flavorful are
poisonous to our canine buddies. But at the end of a long day, I’ve often
thought that it would be nice if there was a way we could share a brew with our
favorite furry gal pal.
Local entrepreneurs Mark McDonnell and Kyle Velvis had the
same thought. The two share a love for craft beer, and having spent a lot of
time at breweries, they noticed two things: Beer and dog lovers go hand in
hand, and there’s a lot of spent grain from the brewing process that goes to
waste. So they went to work developing a product that would transform that
brewing byproduct into a snackable doggy delicacy, and after about a year of
trial and error dialing in the recipe, BrewSki Bones was born.
The process starts with a load of spent grain from Crazy
Mountain Brewing Co. in Edwards. Spent grain is what remains in the mash tun
after the liquid wort has been removed and mostly consists of husks and the
reproductive seed parts of the barley and other grains used to brew the beer.
McDonnell and Velvis combine this spent grain with
all-natural peanut butter, organic flour and Colorado eggs to make their
flagship product, Beaver Balls. The dough for the balls is scooped onto cookie
sheets and baked in a commercial oven for four hours until dry before being
packed into half-pound and one-pound bakery bags. Because the treats are a
fresh product made with no preservatives, they have a recommended shelf life of
about two months, McDonnell said.
McDonnell and Velvis only make use of spent grain from
certain styles of beer — namely, Crazy Mountain’s pale ale and ESB — in order
to keep the wheat and gluten content low in BrewSki Bones. Velvis said he is
amazed at how many people approach their tent at farmers markets and other
events and are very selective about what they put into their dogs’ stomachs.
Potential customers are pleasantly surprised by the Beaver Balls. The treats
are a good source of carbohydrates and indigestible proteins and also contain
calcium and phosphorous, both important elements in a dog’s diet, Velvis said.
Making a nutritious dog treat is one thing, but the main
goal of Velvis and McDonnell’s venture is to enable craft-beer lovers to share
a bit of their passion with their four-legged friends. McDonnell said the
fledgling company has attracted interest from a couple of other breweries that
want to make treats out of their own spent grain. The idea, he said, is for
each brewery to have its own flavor of BrewSki Bone that can be marketed as a
companion to its beer. McDonnell and Velvis have a lot of avenues they want to
explore down the road, including seasonal treat flavors that make use of
locally grown produce, such as pumpkins in the fall, and smaller treat sizes
for training or toy breeds. But for now, you can grab a package of Beaver Balls
from the Crazy Mountain tasting room, kick back and savor a “brew” with your
best friend.
For more information about BrewSki Bones, visit their
Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/brewskibones.
From the Fridge: BrewSki Bones
I used to take my Alaskan husky Nika into the bank with me
and the tellers would fawn over her and offer her dog treats. Being the gastro
prima donna that she is, she would spit them onto the floor and walk away. So
the first time I offered her a BrewSki Bone, I feared she would have the same
response. I handed her a Beaver Ball, and she nosed it around for a bit and
then looked at me, unsure.
So I pulled another one out of the package, broke it in half
and popped a piece into my mouth. BrewSki Bones are made with high-grade
ingredients, so they are perfectly safe for human consumption (McDonnell said
Velvis is known to eat them by the handful during their baking parties). It tasted
like a dry granola bar, very crumbly with a hint of peanut butter. Not bad — in
fact, way more palatable than some of the high-fiber protein bars you find on
the grocery store shelf.
Nika was still looking at me quizzically, so I broke her
treat into pieces and piled them on the floor for her. She devoured them and
then sat down, tail wagging, the international sign for “please, Mom, can I
have another one?” I cracked a beer and watched her devour another Beaver Ball,
sharing the moment with a very satisfied canine customer.
Krista Driscoll
Hophead
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