So, I picked up some dried shiitake last night. Original plan was to add ~2 oz at flame out. So I got home, pulled one out to sample for flavor and as i’m chewing on it I notice the package says “sulfites added”. Being my first lager (schwatrzbier), I’m already a bit worried about underpitching, and adding sulfite to the wort doesn’t seem like the best idea. On the other hand, it might be diluted enough to not make too big a difference.
Am I worrying too much? Would adding the mushrooms to secondary be better, or would that be worse since I’m bottle conditioning? I could always just go buy some fresh shiitake to use, but I’ve always found dried mushrooms give off more flavors.
I would steer clear of adding sulfites but it might be fine. Do you have the ability to force carb if it comes to it?
Personally I would skip the shrooms on my first lager to get an idea of what the beer is going to taste like. I also don’t get good thoughts about shitakes particularly in beer. There are some mushroom beers that sound quite nice to me but shitake doesn’t quite work.
It could be that shitakes are not my favorite mushroom, or it could be that the meaty/brothy flavor I get from them seems too close to yeast autolysis to me.
Some people seem to have a sensitivity to them raw. The general consensus in the mycology world is to not eat any raw fungus. I’d put them in the boil but as mentioned above, you might consider not using them at all this go to get the base beer the way you want it.
As an aside, I’ve always been curious about the flavors to be gotten by ‘fermenting’ some sterilized wort with edible fungus mycelium for a period of time before inoculating yeast. The smell of liquid-cultured mycelium can be quite nice, sort of a clean/creamy/fresh smell. No idea on the taste though.
I’d love to wait, and I was planning to do a smaller test batch earlier in the year. Unfortunately, I’m making it for a friend who is coming to visit from Japan, and this is the first time it looks like we will have cool enough temperatures. Two-thirds through November in MN, and it’s the first week we don’t look like we will get above 60. It’s terrible.
I guess I can just brew it straight, and make a broth (sans salt) with fresh mushrooms when I bottle. That might be better anyway since I can draw off a portion and season to taste. Though I won’t have wort infused mushrooms to stir-fry that way.
I looked at mycelium fermentation while I was looking for information on how I should do this as well, looks interesting, but definitely something to save for a later date.
I agree with Jonathon, I wouldn’t recommend adding any additives to a first lager beer. How are you going to know if that particular flavor is from the shrooms or from a flawed process?
Edit: OTOH adding this after fermentation would at least give you the opportunity to sample the beer first.
In addition to what the others say, that amount of mushrooms may be undetectable. When I use fresh mushrooms, I use anywhere from 2-4 lb. for 5 gal. Even at that rate they are very subtle.