I’m a firm believer that bacon makes anything better. I am thinking about bacon and beer. I have tasted smoked porter that reminded me of bacon, but I was wondering if anyone had actually flavored beer with bacon. How did it turn out? When did you put it in? I am thinking of adding it in the last 15 minutes or so of the boil. I am concerned with the grease. Of course I will fry the bacon and try to drain off most of the grease. As I write this it sounds kind of crazy, but I figure that experimentation is what makes homebrewing fun.
I’ve never tried brewing with bacon, but I can try to point you in the right direction. The May/June 2010 issue of BYO had an article about brewing with bacon, you might want to start there. Basically, it says to bake the bacon to try to get rid of as much fat as possible, then “dry-hog” with it in secondary. It also suggests creating an extract using vodka as another alternative. Let us know how it turns out if you try it.
We had a discussion about this recently. Here’s a link from searching this forum:
What I’ve heard done with beer was to fry up some good bacon, eat it, then put the cooled bacon fat onto the beer in the secondary. After a time, chill the beer until the fat congeals on top and syphon off the beer from under it.
I had a bacon brew at a beer fest last summer. It was…interesting. It was the only beer of the day I ended up dumping before I finished it. But it was a scorchingly hot day and the bacon beer was just not a very good thirst quencher. It’d be interesting to try one with food when it’s not 100 degrees.
Thanks for the input. I have made bacon infused vodka in the past and it has turned out well. The de-fatting part was tedious and I wanted to avoid that with the beer. I think I will put the bacon in the secondary and chill it and siphon the beer from underneath it for bottling.
This is a startup brewery that began this year but created a successful Smoked Bacon Stout. Here is there info: http://www.holycitybrewing.com/ and they have pics on their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HolyCityBrewing I agree with you as well, bacon makes EVERYTHING better.
I made one last year based off the article from Zymurgy… the bacon was put on a rack on top of a cookie sheet and baked in the oven until crispy and then put on paper towels to blot up as much grease as possible. I wasn’t going to worry about the head retention at all, didn’t seem worth my time, I just wanted to get the flavor in there. But what I would recommend changing about this recipe would be; take out the biscuit and replace with rauch malt, up it to at least .5#. Its going to compliment the bacon flavor and help it… I have to say I was disappointed in the results. Not enough bacon came thru, but here’s the recipe:
Bacon Porter
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.054 Plato: 13.22
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
78.0 8.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
4.9 0.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350
4.9 0.50 lbs. Crystal 80L 1.033 80
4.9 0.50 lbs. Roasted Barley America 1.028 450
2.4 0.25 lbs. Biscuit Malt Great Britain 1.035 35
2.4 0.25 lbs. Black Patent Malt America 1.028 525
2.4 0.25 lbs. Flaked Barley America 1.032 2
Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
1.50 oz. Fuggle Pellet 5.00 36.3 60 min.
0.50 oz. Fuggle Pellet 5.00 3.2 15 min.
Yeast
White Labs WLP002 English Ale
Saccharification Rest Temp : 154 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 0 Time: 0
Sparge Temp : 170 Time: 10
either dry hop with 5oz cripy bacon or make extract with vodka
There’s a Seattle micro, Three Skulls Brewing, that makes a bacon lager (Buccaneer Bacon). There are bombers of it for sale at the Beer Authority on Lake City Way. I can’t bring myself to buy one…it just doesn’t sound good…
No personal experience with bacon beer, but I know that you have to work really hard to get the fat out unless you want to kill the head on your beer. That means a lot more work than just draining off the grease.
Personally, I’d skip the actual bacon to avoid the fat and to get better control on salt and nitrate levels (nitrate can kill yeast in high enough concentrations, as can salt). Instead, I’d just use ingredients reminiscent of bacon, like hickory-smoked malt, kosher (non-iodinized) salt and perhaps something to get an “umami” taste, like MSG or a bit of nutritional yeast from the health food store.
I love you.
BYO also had an article a year or so ago about doing a bacon porter. i’ll dig it up for when I get a chance.
Are you thinking of the breakfast beer article with “Some Pig Porter” in BYO May/June 2010 ?
There was also this article from an associated blog on bacon in beer.
I like bacon, and I like beer. However, I will not try to combine them. I can’t knock the idea though, since home-brewing is all about experimenting!
mxstar21, have you ever tasted Schlenkerla Rauchbier? Either the Märzen or the Urbock is as bacony smokey goodness with a dry finish and no fat! I’d use 10-20% of Weyermann’s smoke malt in a porter to enhance the bacon flavor. Get yourself a bottle and have a BLT with it.
I will have to look for it next time I am on the mainland. Doubt I can find here in Hawaii.
I’d go with baking the bacon in the oven at 300-25˚F on a rack with a baking sheet under to catch the grease. Low and slow will render the fat and cook the bacon crispy as well. Watch it so it doesn’t burn. Not a good flavor in beer. I’ve also heard of blanching the bacon first to render fat in simmering water, then placing it in the oven to crisp.
I wouldn’t add the bacon to the boil since the preponderance of flavors are lost during fermentation process. Take the bacon, crumble it and add it to the secondary. If you worry about sanitation, you can put the crumbled bacon into a glass jar and put enough vodka to cover the bacon completely to extract the flavor for a couple of days and use that liquor and/or bacon in the secondary to flavor. Tasting the infused vodka before you add it is a good idea so you can get the amount of flavor you’re looking for. Taste during secondary as well for flavor development. Actually… Take a lot of bacon and infuse it with vodka. Put some in your secondary of your porter and save the rest of the vodka to make special Bloody Mary’s. Oh the carnage!
As I wrote to mxstar21 you can also mash (or steep for 60 minutes at 152-54˚F if you use extract) your wort with 10-20% of Weyermann’s smoked malt. Don’t use the peat smoked malt – not very bacony. Try Schlenkerla Rauchbier too to see the level of smokiness you can get. they use 100% smoked malt.
via con tocino!
I “baconized” my beer today. 2 weeks in the primary was a little longer than I had planned but I got busy. I think it will work out ok since I know that the grease is less likely to mess with the yeasties since they’ve had a little extra time. I baked the bacon and blotted it on a paper towel as suggested above. I went with a full pound of hardwood smoked, sugar cured bacon. Now I just wait…planning on letting that sit for a week.
Jumpin’ JahoshaPHAT! I’m interested to hear how you think it comes out spydad45.
I’m bottling my beer today. I put the beer into my deep freeze for a couple of hours to congeal the bacon grease. I haven’t tasted it yet.
The fat congealing is a great idea. We all look forward to your critique of the flavor, unless you want to send us a bottle and we’ll critique with you.
Enjoy the weekend!