Opinions on adding Bacon

[Sourz4life]

I'm gonna try some fatback bacon next. I'm gonna start the build on the charcuterie set up this weekend.

 

[Revvy]

I'm gonna try some fatback bacon next. I'm gonna start the build on the charcuterie set up this weekend.

Can't wait to get home tonight and fry up some of the buckboard.

Oh the other fun cured meats to play around with a corned beef, montreal smoked meat, and pastramis.

 

[Sourz4life]

Got that smoked maple bacon ale kegged. The bacon extract was quite flavorful. Now I wait.

 

[Revvy]

Got that smoked maple bacon ale kegged. The bacon extract was quite flavorful. Now I wait.

How much bacon/vodka did you use? How'd the defatting go?

 

[Sourz4life]

I ended up doing the infusion twice since I wanted it more bacony. Each time I added about 1/3 volume of fat and 1-2 pieces of fried up bacon. I ended up with about 8 oz's of bacon infused vodka at the end. I strained it like 5-6 times using a golden filter/coffee filters after freezing the fat. It was pretty crystal clear after. It came out pretty strong in flavor so I guess I'll see how well the flavor shows once the beer is carbed.

 

[Revvy]

I fell like such a proud poppa.

That's amazing color, hard to believe it's vodka!

 

[Sourz4life]

I very much appreciate all your help on it. If it ever becomes popular or anything I'll def be crediting you on the bacon infused flavor =D. Plus you've given me a viable option/equipment to get started on charcuterie, which is one of my lifetime goals. I will be joining you on mastering the perfect chorizo, that's for sure. I have so many ideas floating around now with the combination of charcuturie, brewing and cheesemaking.

 

[Rolsom]

I have the NB bacon red, just bottled last Tuesday. I'll let you know how it is when I pop one.
I also made a bacon tincture with vodka. Split one pound of bacon into three different experiments:
1) half cup of bacon fat with half cup of vodka.
2) half cup of toweled bacon in half cup of vodka.
3) half cup of fat, half cup of bacon, full cup of vodka.

My experiments have been sitting for 6 months, need to open them and see what the best combination is, or if it really mattered.

Okay, learned a good deal about bacon flavoring.
The NB Bacon red ale turned out great. The vial of bacon flavoring smelled over powering when it was added, but after 3 weeks of bottle conditioning it no longer smelled or tasted chemically.
The flavor starts smokey and mellows into a nice bacon flavor, got great reviews at bottle share.

From the vodka experiment, The best flavor came from the fat and bacon mixture. Problem is that the bacon flavor is not condensed enough that it would be discernable in a five gallon batch. I think to get enough flavor, I would need too much vodka for the yeast to handle.
I may try burning off the alcohol to maybe condense the bacon.

 

[Sourz4life]

You could use a vodka with the least amount of ABV % you can find. I just found that if I added more bacon and fat in stages after draining it upped the flavor without having to add any more vodka. There is an absorption rate on alcohol, so of course at some point it'll be as powerful as it can be but I think if you just used low ABV% and kept switching out the fat/bacon pieces after like 5-7 days soaking you should get a pretty strong flavor. I know before I put mine into a 5 gallon keg I did a test. I added millimeters at a time to 8 OZ's of the brew I was using. I kept adding it until I got the flavor I wanted and just scaled that to 5 gallons. I only ended up needing to use 8 OZ of infused vodka in it which really isn't that much, but I infused it with alot of fat and bacon 2 times so it was extremely pungent. When I purged the keg head space last night to bring it down to serving PSI it smells like bacon coming out.

 

[MikeWazowski]

Make a sandwich with the bacon. Preferably a BLT with plenty of B and a heirloom variety of T. Eat the sandwich and drink the beer.

 

[ThatVideoKid]

You could use a vodka with the least amount of ABV % you can find. I just found that if I added more bacon and fat in stages after draining it upped the flavor without having to add any more vodka. There is an absorption rate on alcohol, so of course at some point it'll be as powerful as it can be but I think if you just used low ABV% and kept switching out the fat/bacon pieces after like 5-7 days soaking you should get a pretty strong flavor. I know before I put mine into a 5 gallon keg I did a test. I added millimeters at a time to 8 OZ's of the brew I was using. I kept adding it until I got the flavor I wanted and just scaled that to 5 gallons. I only ended up needing to use 8 OZ of infused vodka in it which really isn't that much, but I infused it with alot of fat and bacon 2 times so it was extremely pungent. When I purged the keg head space last night to bring it down to serving PSI it smells like bacon coming out.

Yeah, if you have access to that skinny girl 40 proof crap. What marketing genius.

 

[Sourz4life]

From what I've seen you can try dry hogging and use it in the mash if you use fining like gelatin help separate the fat but I've never tried it so I'm not sure on the exact process

 

[Sourz4life]

You could just use something like Smirnoff and dilute it

 

[chawn]

I'm curious how this turned out. It reminds me of the pork chop beer thread a few years ago. He never reported back, so I have to assume it killed him.

But seriously, I have successfully made a bacon beer by simply smoking my 2-row with hickory.

 

[Sourz4life]

I'm curious how this turned out. It reminds me of the pork chop beer thread a few years ago. He never reported back, so I have to assume it killed him.

But seriously, I have successfully made a bacon beer by simply smoking my 2-row with hickory.

It should be carbonated by Wednesday or Thursday so I'll post the results

 

[Sourz4life]

First pour off the keg of the smoked maple bacon ale. First off, its perfectly carbonated. Has nice head retention and mouthfeel. The very first pour smelt like bananas but subsided after about a minute. There is no mistaking it, there is bacon flavor in there. Has a hint of smokeyness. You can also pick up subtle notes of Maple. Its a very drinkable and could easily drink about 6 of these glasses. Came out to 6.1% ABV. The only thing I would change next time is a little extra bacon flavoring which I'll most likely just add to the next kegging batch this weekend. All and all I think I have a winner here.

 

[martijacpbs]

Finally I found this lost article that I had read a few months ago, kinda about related theme https://www.yahoo.com/style/beer-glazed-bacon-is-better-than-candy-107601658461.html

 

[Sourz4life]

So its been another week after trying this. I had another one today. The only thing I noticed was int he first few pours you could definitely taste the vodka a little bit. So I think I plan to add the extract when transfer the brew to primary so it has time to mix while it ferments. I also plan to use less vodka this time and just let the bacon extract sit longer. Besides that its getting better with age. Interested in seeing how it tastes in a few months.