Well, the next mushroom beer is underway…a Belgian Golden Strong with matsutake mushrooms! A friend dropped off 3+ lb. the other day (gotta love living in OR where you can just go out and pick them!). I chopped, vacuum packed and froze them yesterday until the beer is brewed and I’m ready to use them.
looks good Denny.
I find this idea extremely interesting. I know it has been covered but how/when do you add them? After fermentation is complete?
those are some of the nicest looking shrooms i’ve seen.
gotta say, after having a Duvel at a restaurant on draft last night, i can imagine the chantarelles/wee heavy being a good combo, but this one is hard for me to imagine. keep us posted!
Here’s Denny’s recipe for another mushroom beer. I would assume the process is the same.
Yep, after fermentation is complete. I’ve found that the key is how you process the shrooms. I advise against doing the standard vodka soak. It seems to ruin the flavor and add heat from the alcohol. I chop the up, vacuum seal them and freeze them. When fermentation is complete I that them and add the shrooms and all the liquid from the vacuum bag to the fermenter. A week or two in the beer and I rack from the shrooms and keg.
And those are the leftovers that the mushroom buyer didn’t want!
just read up on matsutakes as it’s been a while since I used them. they are supposed to have a spicey cinnemon like aroma with some earthiness and funk. that sounds pretty good in a golden strong actually.
Do you think the mushrooms have any value after you package? It’s gonna kill me to just throw away what started out as 8 pounds of chantrerrels.
Yeah, that’s what they smelled like so that’s why I went BGSA. In my mind, it works. I hope that carries through to the glass!
You can try sauteing them to see. I didn’t get much out of them when I tried but beer flavor. But it’s easy enough to try it and see what happens.
OK. Then I guess we’ll try them in a beef stew or such. The beer flavor should be good in something like that. Or a meatloaf. hmmmmmm.
Yeah, beef stew is exactly what I was thinking, too. Or maybe a rich veggie stew.
Does freezing mushrooms after vacuum packing rid the possibility of botulism? As I’m sure you know, vacuum packing mushrooms should never be done because of the risk of botulism.
Either way, I hope it turns out for you, Denny! Sounds pretty gross to me! And I love mushrooms…