Brewing ale with sausage

[bigmikebrews]

I help organize an annual food festival where 15 of my friends and I prepare a sausage food item. This year, I want to brew a beer that's beef sausage-infused at some point in the process, but am not finding existing commentary from a brewer who's attempted something similar.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? It'll be a partial mash batch. Much appreciated.

 

[b-boy]

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7LRM/buffalo-wild-wings-weird-drink

Sorry - couldn't resist.

 

[Echofett]

I think you would be better off pulling flavors typical of sausages. Like fennel and sage from those respective spices, rather than actually trying to infuse a beer with cooked meat.

Any kind of fat is going to give you hella trouble.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Sausage infused beer? Good luck with that. Maybe you can pull it off, but it sounds terrible to me. Maybe instead of using actual meat (with all the fat and bugs it carries), you can use the same kind of spicing in the beer you use in the sausage. Alternately, make a great sausage and cook it in beer. There must be another way to tie this all together.

Damn it. Ninjaed by Echofett.

 

[Beernik]

Like said above, sausage spices in a beer. A saison would be great for that.

Or making a reduction sauce/glaze from a beer or a wort and mixing it into the sausage would be really good too.

The fat and oils from the meat aren't going to do nice things in the fermenter .

 

[bigmikebrews]

Even if it tastes like car oil, it's more about the novelty than anything else - I don't expect this beer to be a gem. I'm willing to try it one time.

I'm thinking my best bet is a pale ale, and to introduce a mild sausage link or two at 45(ish) minutes?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Once again, the spice combination is likely to evoke the flavor and nuances of sausage much more than actual meat in your beer. Sausage is laden with fat, which will effectively kill head retention and create an "oil slick" of sorts on the surface of the beer. A sparing dose of liquid smoke or smoked malt will add some depth if you're after a smoked sausage flavor.

Pale ale sounds like an awful style choice for the beer. A dry, hoppy beer will not likely play well with the sweet, spicy flavor of sausage. Try a mild, brown, or even blonde ale as the base.

You asked to be pointed in the "right" direction, and you got a lot of good advice, but it seems you'd rather have received high fives and validation for your idea. If the latter was your intent, it's not likely. I doubt you'll find anyone who recommends adding sausage links to the boil, and if you choose to do so, you've been informed of the likely outcome.

 

[snowtires]

Maybe some sausage spice and dryhop with smoke chips

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[flars]

Using sausage spices is a good idea. Go light otherwise they will be over powering. Serve the beer with a beef stick or strip of jerky in the glass.

 

[bigmikebrews]

I appreciate everyone's advice, and I also appreciate your advice to not use a pale ale as the base, fully aware that the outcome with any attempt won't be palatable. I'm brewing a sausage beer regardless. My intention on this thread was to figure out what approach, if any, would be my best bet. No validation or high fives needed.

I'm not a seasoned brewer, so I come here to ask questions; I'm thankful that knowledgeable folks take the time to answer ones as absurd as mine.

 

[max384]

In the show Brew Dogs, they made a meat-infused beer by smoking meat and letting some of the drippings fall onto their unmilled grains. Maybe you could use this same idea? I have no experience with this sort of thing at all, but I can watch TV with the best of 'em!

 

[ab12]

Get in touch with the guys at earth eagle brewings in Portsmouth nh. They've brewed with bear meat and a hogs head I think. Nice guys, and they own a homebrew shop too.

 

[patthebrewer]

Why not give it a shot....as a nod to my Scottish heritage , I have though of trying to brew and old Scottish recipe, Cock(chicken) Ale.....the drinking of which would be akin to testing your self (i.e. tossing the caber....or eating haggis, and trying not to puke)

 

[GuldTuborg]

I appreciate everyone's advice, and I also appreciate your advice to not use a pale ale as the base, fully aware that the outcome with any attempt won't be palatable. I'm brewing a sausage beer regardless. My intention on this thread was to figure out what approach, if any, would be my best bet. No validation or high fives needed.

I'm not a seasoned brewer, so I come here to ask questions; I'm thankful that knowledgeable folks take the time to answer ones as absurd as mine.

Well put. Good luck.

 

[bigmikebrews]

Thanks everyone! I'll holler at Earth Eagle - I'm casting my net wide 😀

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

Anyone else thinking of Charlie P.'s description of Cock Ale?

Take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are broken (you must gut him when you flaw him). Then, put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put to it five pounds of raisins of the sun - stoned; some blades of mace, and a few cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has been working, put the bag and ale together in vessel.

In a week or nine days bottle it up, fill the bottle just above the neck and give it the same time to ripen as other ale."

 

[greyghost]

I would cook the sausage to get as much grease out as you can. Country Sausage would work best. Pat it as dry as you can with paper towels. I do a Maple Bacon with real bacon this way and have no trouble with the grease and still retain the bacon flavor.