Bacon Stout. Please help.

[Ringmaster]

please tell me Mouse means something else..

 

[JOHN51277]

I hope that was supposed to be mousse!

 

[DirtyPolock]

I remember reading in a BYO magazine that you can "dry hog" beer in a secondary. It mentioned what was stated previously to cook the bacon in an oven with a wire rack to allow the fat to drip off. Then they stated to place the bacon into your secondary and follow the same procedures that you would use when you dry hop a beer.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

No they actually meant mouse.

That wasn't nearly as disturbing as jelly donut.

 

[Abadeon]

What about smoked-wilderness-mouses? (ekkkkkk)
Now serious: Did you chose how you´re going to use the bacon? What about adding it to the boil, after the oven stuff? I´m not sure if the dry-bacon will work fine.

 

[opqdan]

Might be worth trying to make a bacon extract and adding that to the brew instead.

1) Cook bacon, crumble it and put it in a jar.
2) Top with a neutral spirit (or scotch if you want something smokey)
3) Let it sit for a few weeks (?) in the fridge.
4) Peel the hardened fat off the top, filter, and voila: basically bacon flavored vodka.

Just adding some of that to the secondary might work. It might be the best way to avoid getting fat from the bacon destroying any hopes of producing any head in the beer.

 

[Abadeon]

Might be worth trying to make a bacon extract and adding that to the brew instead.

1) Cook bacon, crumble it and put it in a jar.
2) Top with a neutral spirit (or scotch if you want something smokey)
3) Let it sit for a few weeks (?) in the fridge.
4) Peel the hardened fat off the top, filter, and voila: basically bacon flavored vodka.

Just adding some of that to the secondary might work. It might be the best way to avoid getting fat from the bacon destroying any hopes of producing any head in the beer.

Isn´t the point here, but won´t some smoked malt produce the bacon flavor to a beer?

 

[Homebrewtastic]

That was actually my original plan.

My thought is that for one I need to minimize the amount of fat that gets into the brew as much as possible. So here's my plan.

Take some bacon and trim off all of the visible fat. Cook the bacon until it's crispy. Then soak the bacon in some scotch for a day, and then place it in the freezer. The remaining fat SHOULD float to the top and I can scrape it off.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

For all interested parties the stout is in the secondary. I decided to go with the homemade bacon extract approach. It goes in on Tuesday. So far the stout is tasting quite delicious. I went with a lower ABV version of the stout as normally it's quite strong and boozy and didn't want it to compete with the bacon flavors.

 

[whatsleftofyou]

I'd hate to be a judge for this comp. Chocolate milk is one of the ingredients? Not pretty.

 

[ptakers]

Flower = hibiscus, and you're halfway home, baby

 

[remilard]

If I had done this, in order to nominally qualify for the competition I would have gotten some flavor from a homemade bacon flavored bourbon or something.

I would have gotten a lot of the bacon flavor from rauchmalt. I might have experimented with adding a small amount of pink salt to give the piquant flavor typical of cured meats. Some brown sugar or maple syrup wouldn't hurt.

Then the second ingredient is easy, fine it with super-kleer which is made from shellfish.

 

[steelebrew]

Thats exactly what I would do, whiskey would do well in a stout. You could also use vodka if you want a neutral flavor

 

[Homebrewtastic]

If I had done this, in order to nominally qualify for the competition I would have gotten some flavor from a homemade bacon flavored bourbon or something.

Apparently most people aren't actually reading the thread in any detail.

I am making bacon extract with cooked bacon fat (as the smoke flavor compounds in bacon are fat soluble not water soluble) and scotch whiskey.

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

Apparently most people aren't actually reading the thread in any detail.

I am making bacon extract with cooked bacon fat (as the smoke flavor compounds in bacon are fat soluble not water soluble) and scotch whiskey.

I'm reading the thread and I think its a great idea. The only thing that I would add is that if you're already doing an extraction with scotch (i would use bourbon, but that's just me) than I don't think you need to worry about getting too much fat into the beer. There should be a limited amount of fat which can dissolve in a 40% ethanol/water solution anyway so I don't think you have to worry about that. If I was you I might just put the bacon and grease into a couple mason jars, top them up with scotch, shake them real good, let it sit for a week and then throw it in the fridge until it separates really well (fat should rise to the top). Then you could could poke a straw through the fat layer and siphon the bacon scotch off the bottom.

I think that this should work, though I haven't tried it. Now I will be thinking about bacon bourbon baltic porter for the rest of the day.

 

[jfkriege]

There are barkeepers/mixologists who make bacon infused vodkas. They put rendered bacon fat into the vodka and shake it up each day for a week. They then put it in the freezer to solidify all of the fat, and then filter it once or twice through a coffee filter. It provides a cocktail that does not have fat in it but has the bacon flavor.

 

[erock2112]

I agree with a few other people - I brought my smoked porter to a homebrew festival recently and at least 10 people asked if it had meat/bacon in it. I would go with a smoked porter base to minimize the amount of actual bacon you need to use.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

Bad news for people who love bad news....

The stout has an infection. I've got a pellicle on top. However the bacon extract is tasting quite bacony, so I'm going to save it for a future batch.

 

[dwarven_stout]

Bad news for people who love bad news....

The stout has an infection. I've got a pellicle on top. However the bacon extract is tasting quite bacony, so I'm going to save it for a future batch.

Might as well taste the stout. It might be fantastic!

 

[OsbornBrewing]

BYO May-June 2010 has a great couple pages on bacon beer. You are right, NO FAT, the fat will go rancid and ruin the beer.
He talks about 'dry hogging' beer. Cook the bacon in the stove till crispy and fatless, but not burnt. Then add to the secondary, like dry hopping. This is definitely on my to do list, I just have not got there yet.
PM me your info, I would definitely like to arrange a taste of your finished product.

CHEERS!

PS I was late to the party, sorry. I will be dry hogging' a breakfast stout based on your initial recipe and would like to trade when you use your bacon infused extract.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

GOOD NEWS!!! NO INFECTION!!

I've been brewing for years and still every time I see a weird formation on top I think "OH NOES INFECTION!!!" However this time it looked just like the brett pellicle I had on a sour saison I made.

I just got home from work and tasted it, definitely not infected. What I thought was a pellicle has started settling out and now just looks like flocculant yeast.

Osborn - I'll PM you my info. I read that same BYO article last week and considered "dry hogging" but had already committed to a course of action. I would love to swap brews when they're done.

I'm also considering bottle conditioning with maple syrup to reinforce the bacon flavor.

Thoughts?

 

[Homebrewtastic]

Oh also this round I did drop down the gravity. The original beer is great and has lots of complex alcohols, but I was worried about too many flavors overwhelming the bacon. I cut down my base grains to 7lbs. Maris Otter and 2.5lbs. 2-row. Past that the recipe is exactly as before.

 

[Bendbiker]

I live in Quebec, Canada and there are a lot of local microbrews that use maple syrup here, which I suppose isn't that surprising. I find it all ferments out completely and you don't taste the maple too much. If you are going to use maple syrup, I would buy the REALLY darkest kind you can get, which should give you the most aroma for your buck when its all fermented out.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

Good info to have. I had heard before that maple is really fermentable.

I've also heard that it's best to add in secondary or bottling, that you get more flavor that way. I'll be sure to buy the darkest maple syrup I can find though.

 

[fineexampl]

If you still need to add beans, Asian/Japenese markets sell red beans that they use to make bean paste. It's basically cooked and mashed and they add sugar to it to sweeten. You could probably add ground beans to your mash, though i don't know how the added proteins would affect everything.

edit: yes i read through everything and i know you already brewed. just a sidenote in case you revisit this for a future brew.

 

[smokinghole]

All the talk about maple made me remember Radical Brewing. Fenugreek is used to make artificial maple syrups. It's a herb used in Indian food according to Radical Brewing. I'll see if I can find it at the local indian mart.

 

[Apendecto]

If are doing the whole breakfast thing, why not chuck a jelly doughnut in to the mash? Or the boil. I'd like to see what would be left of it (if any) afterward.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

For all interested parties it's getting kegged tomorrow. Tasting notes to follow soon.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

Okay so it's kegged. I tasted it with the extract and it has a slight bacon smokiness to it. I'm hoping that after it sets for a couple of weeks and as the forced CO2 dissolves into the beer it will get more of the flavor.

Overall though it's a very drinkable beer that I'm looking forward to for the chilly months ahead.

 

[MilehighBrew]

I had a bacon beer at a brewfest in Sacramento and it was the only beer I poured out that day! It was sooooooo gross one sip and it ended up on the ground! Just 1 drinkers experience.