Deliberately cultivating an autolytic flavor?

That "meaty" taste from autolysis...Has anyone tried getting that on purpose? If I threw a couple tablespoons of yeast slurry into the boil, would that give me a slight vegemite taste, or would the living yeast clean it up after I pitched them?

Boiling yeast will kill it and the live yeast will eat it up post haste.

WHY would you actually want to produce this off flavor? Besides it being difficult to have it happen on the home brew scale, pretty much every other brewer (in the world) takes steps to avoid it.

I was wondering what kind of accent a very, very small amount would bring to a smoked beer.

From my understanding, it's typically caused when you put the yeast cake under too much pressure and heat (from having thousands of gallons of beer on top of it). Since it's a [very] rare accident at the home brewing scales I doubt many will know how to actually replicate it. I also don't think it's possible to have "a very, very small amount" with this. It's either all or none.

I would look to give the beer some more, desirable, flavors. Unless you don't mind tossing out a batch.

I was thinking about taking some slurry from a fully attenuated beer, killing it, and tossing into the beer when there isn't so much activity so it won't all get cleaned up. I was just wondering how the "meaty" flavor would go with a rauchbier which, famously, frequently taste like bacon anyway.

Radegast said:

I was thinking about taking some slurry from a fully attenuated beer, killing it, and tossing into the beer when there isn't so much activity so it won't all get cleaned up. I was just wondering how the "meaty" flavor would go with a rauchbier which, famously, frequently taste like bacon anyway.

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Try it, but I see this as a huge mistake.

Bacon flavor is more typically from the smoking done to the meat. So, either add some malt that was smoked with something like that (you can get cherry wood smoked malt) or make it yourself. You can also get those flavors from live yeast contributions (probably the traditional source of the flavor) or the water used in the batch (very probable as the source as well).
Such as getting the smokey/peaty flavors in a wee heavy that didn't use any smoked malts at all. Or getting oak notes when no oak was used. Yeast and water can combine to make rather interesting/unique flavors.

You get an interesting flavor from letting a spent grain bed sit for about twelve hours and then running another sparge over it. I've done it a few times.

I don't know what autolysis tastes like though so I can't tell how it would be the same or different.

Linky: Crash Test Dummy

Leave your grain sit someplace where it won't annoy SWMBO and do another sparge later. Keep a bit of LME available for if you don't get enough fermentables.

I've had the flavor described as reminiscent of the Bottle caps candy you only see at movie houses and get in Halloween hand-outs.

Radegast said:

I was thinking about taking some slurry from a fully attenuated beer, killing it, and tossing into the beer when there isn't so much activity so it won't all get cleaned up. I was just wondering how the "meaty" flavor would go with a rauchbier which, famously, frequently taste like bacon anyway.

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Autolysis is a breakdown process where the cells lysosomes attack the cell and it's contents..it's the same process that turns cut fruit like apples brown.

You can't accomplish this by boiling because you will denature the proteins responsible for the process.

"Autolysis is a breakdown process where the cells lysosomes attack the cell and it's contents..it's the same process that turns cut fruit like apples brown."

Nah..Yeast autolysis has nothing to do with fruit turning brown. Apples, pears, etc., are rich in iron. When you slice open an apple, the cells are damaged. Oxygen reacts with the iron in the damaged cells, causing iron oxide to form. The brown color is rust. That's the reason cider is a deep red to brown color. Place the fruit in water and it doesn't turn brown, less oxygen. Heyna, or no?