CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Breweries are fast and abundant in Charlotte. Two business partners decided to take advantage of that by using breweries' waste to create something sustainable.

Eric Westerduin and Sheera Bursch starting making dog treats from spent grains about six months ago. Head brewer Brian Quinn at Town Brewing Co. in Charlotte said "spent grains" are grains left over in the brewing process.

"Whenever we do brew a batch of beer, the grain that is left over after we extract all the malt sugars out of it, there is still a lot of nutritional value in that," Quinn said. "We send a lot of that off to local farmers, but it is great being able to work with a new local business that has found a way to re-purpose that for dog treats."

The treats are called "Calvin’s Craft Cookies". Bursch worked as a veterinary technician for 15 years and helped develop the recipe using five ingredients; spent grains, unbleached flour, peanut butter, flaxseed, and cinnamon.

They also use recyclable beer cans.

"Instead of going with the typical plastic bag or paper box like almost all treats are in, we thought we should keep with the beer theme," Bursch said.

Fifteen percent of all the proceeds from their business go to help local animal shelters.

"We pick a different animal rescue each month and just being able to write that donation check and see, on the front end you get the happy dogs with treats, but on the back end, you get to see how much of a difference that makes to local animal rescues," Westerduin said.

Calvin’s Craft Cookies are for sale at several local breweries in Charlotte and online.
For more information visit their website.