Great Raft Brewing has partnered with a local Shreveport bakery to bake unique dog treats in an effort to reduce waste and help a Shreveport animal shelter.

Great Raft Brewing and Blake Jackson, of Drake Catering, have created Doggie Beer Biscuits – tasty, healthy treats made for dogs of all sizes. Great Raft Brewing donates the spent grain and Drake donates the other treat ingredients of flour, peanut butter and honey, and then bakes the treats each month. The dog treats, which are all natural and contain no alcohol, hops, chemicals, preservatives or artificial flavors, are packaged and will be sold at the Great Raft Brewing tasting room for $8 per bag. The Humane Society of Northwest Louisiana, a local no-kill animal shelter, will receive all of the profits from the treat purchases.

Each time Great Raft brews a batch of beer, it uses approximately 1,500 pounds of the highest-quality malted barley. Once the sugary liquid is extracted from the grains, the grains are removed and no longer needed in the brewing process. This “spent grain” still has nutritional value and can be recycled beyond the brewing process.

Great Raft and Drake Catering will use about 50 pounds of grain monthly to make the treats. The rest of the grain will continue to go to a local farmer who feeds the grains to his cattle on a nearby farm. All of the grains used to brew beer at Great Raft Brewing are recycled and used, without any going to waste.