Opinions on adding Bacon

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Came out really nice. Smokey and flavorful.

image.jpg
 
After doing this whole process, I'm now interested in getting this charcuterie thing going. What is a good starter choice? I'm looking to enviably end at chorizo but I want to ease my way into the hobby.
 
Meat my new friend, Bucky. I was off yesterday, and setup my weber kettle grill to try smoking my buckboard bacon. I used a 50-50 mix of maple and pecan chips to smoke it.

Only took 2.5 hours to hit temp. Can't wait to slice it up and try some today. It's a weird thing since I'm so used to pork belly bacon that is more square, then this slab of pork loin, or shoulder (I forgot which.) I'm going to cut it in the middle and then slice it, I should be able to get some uniform slices that way I hope.

A5FF584F-DD41-4D66-BF65-67EE474CBA7A_zpswfglhhkm.jpg


I also picked up a half gallon of cheap bourbon, and passed it a couple times through a brita with Jack Daniel's oak chips in the bottom, then transferred it into a big glass jar to infuse overnight. I'll pull a quart probably for bacon bourbon.
 
jamaral141989 said:
After doing this whole process, I'm now interested in getting this charcuterie thing going. What is a good starter choice? I'm looking to enviably end at chorizo but I want to ease my way into the hobby.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's better and easier to do "whole muscle" charcuterie starting out, then sausage making. You don't need a meat grinder and sausage stuffer, nor do you have to deal with temperatures when making sausage.

Whole muscles are just like bacon, a slab of some sort of meat in spices and herbs, then hung to dry and (some smoked) and then sliced.

I've done duck prosciutto, which is awesome and simple if you can get some duck breasts, and they don't take long to hang because of their size.

I like to do Lomos because I can spice them similar to chorizo with lots of smoked paprika, and they're basically pork loins, and you can do anything spice wise with them. You can do a lot of traditional Portugese flavors in them.

Panchettas are fun... I've only done the slab, I haven't yet done the rolled and tied version.

I did my first ham for Easter. I just did a "picnic ham" which is the front haunch of the pig (it was smaller and cheaper) In America we don't tend to cure them like hams, BUT in that Spanish Charcuterie book they cure those as jamons as well.

You did order the Charcuterie book by Rhulman didn't you? That should keep you busy starting out.
 
Revvy said:
THIS... is a thing of beauty. Great first effort.

How's it taste?
Click to expand...

Quite amazing. Perfect amount of salt and very smokey, but in a pleasing way. I did about 3 hours of hickory and 3 hours of oak smoking until it hit internal temp. I was able to render a bunch of the fat as well so I got about 4 cups of bacon fat. Just finished my bacon extract as well, using vodka. There is no mistaking its bacon when you smell it. I'm surprised how much of the the actual pork and smell taste really shines through, along with the smokey smell.
 
Revvy said:
Meat my new friend, Bucky. I was off yesterday, and setup my weber kettle grill to try smoking my buckboard bacon. I used a 50-50 mix of maple and pecan chips to smoke it.

Only took 2.5 hours to hit temp. Can't wait to slice it up and try some today. It's a weird thing since I'm so used to pork belly bacon that is more square, then this slab of pork loin, or shoulder (I forgot which.) I'm going to cut it in the middle and then slice it, I should be able to get some uniform slices that way I hope.

A5FF584F-DD41-4D66-BF65-67EE474CBA7A_zpswfglhhkm.jpg


I also picked up a half gallon of cheap bourbon, and passed it a couple times through a brita with Jack Daniel's oak chips in the bottom, then transferred it into a big glass jar to infuse overnight. I'll pull a quart probably for bacon bourbon.
Click to expand...

Also, that looks delicious.
 
I'm gonna try some fatback bacon next. I'm gonna start the build on the charcuterie set up this weekend.
 
Got that smoked maple bacon ale kegged. The bacon extract was quite flavorful. Now I wait.
 
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.

2016-05-16 14.30.42.jpg
 
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 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
jamaral141989 said:
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.
Click to expand...


Yeah, if you have access to that skinny girl 40 proof crap. What marketing genius.
 
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
 
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.
 
chawn said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

2016-05-26 12.20.46.jpg


2016-05-26 12.20.20.jpg
 
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.
 

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