Meat beer is on the way

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andyhat

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I've had lots of bad idea but this one takes the cake. My friends and I often cook meat with beer. This weekend, I'm finally turning it around. I've seen tons of threads (most in jest) about making a meat beer but I've decided that I'm actually gonna try it. Tomorrow, I'm gonna make a 6 pack brew of meat beer. I'm still trying to figure out the details.

We first had the idea to just pitch in a raw porter house at the beginning of the boil. Others have said maybe try cooking some bacon and pitching that in. I didn't really have any plans to keep the meet in there for the fermentation process.

Anyway, If anyone has any experience with this (including reasons for why it won't work), lay it on me.

I'll also be making a 5 gal batch of pumpkin ale for when this goes terribly wrong... Though maybe I'll follow up with a turkey hef at the end of the month.

I'll let you all know how it goes and likely admit (in due time) that it was the grossest 'beer' I've yet to taste.
 
Cook the meat separately to get the juices out of it. Then,pour it into a container & into the fridge overnight. The fat will solidify at the top. Remove all the fat & use the gelatinized juices in your wort. Fat is a bad thing in beer.
 
Excellent idea. I don't want the fat and I am concerned about the tastes I'll get. I'll try this. Thanks unionrdr.
 
You're welcome. That's the best way to be sure the fat stays out. It'll at the very least give the beer a fighting chance.
 
I'll post the recipe that I use later and let you guys know how it turns out. Right now, sounds like we are gonna do a lean roast beef tonight as prep for the beer tomorrow.
 
barf.gif
 
They used to put a pigs leg in scrumpy back in the olden days, oysters in stout is done now. So there is precedence. I think the acid in the scrumpy broke down the pigs leg which provided FAN for the yeast, so it was beneficial (just a somewhat educated guess). Go for it, nothing ventured nothing gained. Goat leg stout sounds kinda cool and the goatiness of goat with a stout could work. The turkey hef idea sounds kind of appealing in a way, not sure why though.
 
They used to put a pigs leg in scrumpy back in the olden days, oysters in stout is done now. So there is precedence. I think the acid in the scrumpy broke down the pigs leg which provided FAN for the yeast, so it was beneficial (just a somewhat educated guess). Go for it, nothing ventured nothing gained. Goat leg stout sounds kinda cool and the goatiness of goat with a stout could work. The turkey hef idea sounds kind of appealing in a way, not sure why though.

Thanks dude. Yeah. I figure people try stuff all the time that doesn't work out but some of the best beers I've had I thought were off the wall at first. It's just one more thing that could be added to beer. It could taste terrible but I won't know until I try. :mug:
 
maybe just try a rauchbier instead? lol...

lots of smoke aroma and flavor plus a bunch of melanoidins. one of my favorite styles to have when eating something red and bloody.
 
I've had a beer with bacon in it before. Wasn't bad, wasn't good, just interesting.
 
DO IT! Just be sure to use a cheap fermenting container that you can dispose of afterwards. Oh, and ferment it away from everything else. There's no telling what your Frankenbeer will breed infection-wise. KEEP US ALL POSTED.
 
So I've got 2 different 1 gallon batches going. Both are on top of a pale ale dry extract brew with light cascade hops.

#1) This one I made roast beef last night. Covered with foil. Drained the juices and refrigerated them. Then this morning, I poured the juices through a very fine strainer to get out the fat. This will likely just have a very slight meat taste if anything at all.

#2) I was copying the Rogue (c) beer that has bacon and maple syrup. I cooked ~7 pieces of bacon at 400 for 15 minutes and threw those in the boil kettle @30 min. I added about 1 tbsp of 100% maple syrup (no preservatives) near the end of the boil.

I'll post back when I bottle these and again when I open them to let you know how poorly they turn out. Hopefully I don't unleash a zombie infection on the world. *fingers crossed*
 
So wouldn't the fats separate on a post-ferment cold crash? Why let them out early?

I wonder if some beef bullion would make a meaty flavor...

Though I guess in the end this is one of those better separate than together cases...
 
This idea is good and you should feel good. See what you can get away with! And it's not as though salt, burnt sugars, and protein aren't everywhere in beer already. I can't wait to hear how it all turns out.

If you pull it off and make something nice, it's only a matter of time before there's meat beer all over the board--I'm calling dibs on a Honey Duck Ale.
 
I'm just really glad you didn't waste a porterhouse on this like you mentioned in the OP. Otherwise, I'm quite curious how this comes out.
 
I wonder if beef stock or broth would work. I'm sure there's much less fat in stock than you would get from cooking a meat directly.
 
TimT said:
Goat leg stout sounds kinda cool and the goatiness of goat with a stout could work.

The goatiness of a goat would pair nicely with the stoutiness of a stout.
 
andyhat said:
I'll post the recipe that I use later and let you guys know how it turns out. Right now, sounds like we are gonna do a lean roast beef tonight as prep for the beer tomorrow.

Pogopunx82 said:
Please don't do this.

I LOL'd
 
I'd say maybe doing a liquor infusion of bacon or something might be a good way to get the "essence of meat" into the beer. I think the fat would get rancid over a fermentation, even if it weren't infected.

I'll have to second (or third) the suggestion that this might not be so wise...
 
Can't wait to hear how this turns out. There's nothing wrong with pushing the limits of brewing. Worst case scenario you have terrible tasting beer and the firsthand knowledge of something that you won't attempt again. Kudos!
 
I'd say maybe doing a liquor infusion of bacon or something might be a good way to get the "essence of meat" into the beer.

Hmm... liquor infusion. That sounds good. I'm actually doing a jalapeno infused tequila right now. I was just kinda concerned about letting meat sit around like that but if the current test fails, I'll have to give that a try. As I posted earlier, I might try a turkey infusion at the end of the month. I can only stomach so much left over turkey.

Black friday will be a brew day.
 
I was just going to say throw in a can of Campbell's beef broth (the best store-bought beef broth IMO), but then I remembered how salty it is.

I'd make some broth with little/no salt and use it as part of your brewing liquor.
 
You could boiling the turkey carcass, skim the fat and then use that for brewing water!
I recommend making a light american lager to really let the flavor shine. ;) *dry heaving*
 
"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."

Alternate recipe:

Brutal, eh? I was also given a modern recipe written by some guy named C.J.J. Berry.... Here goes this one...
"Take a few pieces of _cooked_ chicken and a few chicken bones (approx one tenth of the edible portion of the bird) well crushed or minced.

Also take half of pound of raisins, a very little mace, and one or maybe two cloves. Add all these ingrediants to half a bottle of string country white wine. Soak for 24 hrs. Then make on gallon of beer as follows:

1 lb Malt extract
1 Oz Hops
1/2 lb demerarra sugar
1 gallon water
Yeast and nutrient
Add the whole of the chicken mixture to the beer at the end of the second day. Fermentation will last six or seven days longer than usual and the ale should be matured at least one month in the bottle. This cock ale is of the barley wine type.

Found this when reading on old drink recipes
 
I had a homebrew back in May that was a bacon brew of some sort. I have no idea how it was brewed, and cannot help at all in that area. All I know is that there were small chunks of bacon and grease in the beer and it got way too salty and nasty near the end of the bottle. Interesting at first, but lost its novelty fast. Like half way through the bottle fast. All I can say is get rid of all of the grease you can.
 
We just made a Bacon Maple Stout by adding 2 lbs cured chopped bacon into our mash and then dry "hogging" 10oz in the secondary.
As of yesterday's kegging it wasn't rancid. We went with an imperial style so the maple flavoring is mild and the bacon is really just a novelty.
It might be too soon to say, but I don't think I'll be brewing this one again.

Just and FYI, You may find it hard to pass on the flavor of meat into beer.
 
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