Shrimp boil beer... or, I've gone crazy and need to be stopped

[cmoewes]

Every fall we host a big shrimp boil. Picture your (backup) brew kettle full of hot shrimp, sausage, corn, potatoes, onion and garlic; all spiced with Old Bay, Tabasco, Cayenne peppers and whatever other half bottles of hot sauce we have left in the fridge.

So for some reason I'm thinking it would be fun, once all the food is cooked, to add in 6# of LME, let it boil another 30 minutes, chill it and pitch some yeast.

I've decided that either I am a genius... or maybe just didn't get enough sleep over the weekend.

What say you??? And remember, you are the voice of reason :fro:

 

[flars]

Lot of oil and fat in that pot. Certainly would kill any chance of a head on your WhaChuGonnaKallIt. Would only be the cost of DME and yeast to find out.

Would be akin to how people found out which mushrooms are not good to eat.

 

[FiddlersGreen87]

I'm sure you could do it. To quote Chris Rock, "You could drive with your feet if you want to, but it doesn't make it a good ****ing idea."

Anyway, I would say your water profile would be so jacked up from the start, then with all the bizarre flavors, and as you mentioned multitude of hot sauces which have tons of vinegar, you'd end up with something truly undrinkable BUT it could make an interesting cooking ingredient.

Or you may end up with a world class undiscovered beer. Only one way to find out if you have the spare change for the ingredients...

 

[amfukuda]

I once tried to do something similar with crawfish boil and I would not recommend it at all


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[cernst151]

That sounds utterly disgusting but I've been wrong about things before. If you do it please let us know how it came out.

If I were you I'd find another use for that water. You could use it to cook all sorts of other things. Maybe corned beef & cabbage? Pasta? Soup?

Or, you could take some of it and boil it down until it's thick and make a sauce that, as long as you were careful not to scorch the bottom, could be delicious.

Or, for just a few bucks you could do a fascinating exBeeriment. It would probably be hell to get the shrimp flavor out of your fermenter though. Not to mention your siphon and hoses.

 

[cmoewes]

I'm sure you could do it. To quote Chris Rock, "You could drive with your feet if you want to, but it doesn't make it a good ****ing idea."

Anyway, I would say your water profile would be so jacked up from the start, then with all the bizarre flavors, and as you mentioned multitude of hot sauces which have tons of vinegar, you'd end up with something truly undrinkable BUT it could make an interesting cooking ingredient.

I actually do take and freeze several icecube trays of it and keep those in the freezer. They make great flavor additions to soups and the like.

I hadn't thought about all the oil and vinegar and problems from that.

But but but but... Oyster Stout ?!?!?!

 

[SquidPope]

I'd go for it. Like other people have said, you're really only out the cost of the extract, yeast, hops, and whatever you use to de-stink your fermenter.

But then again, I'm working on a recipe for rutabaga beer, so take my advice at your own peril

 

[Yooper]

Snap out of it!

Shrimp boil is awesome. Beer is awesome. A shrimp boil beer is gross.

 

[cmoewes]

Snap out of it!

Shrimp boil is awesome. Beer is awesome. A shrimp boil beer is gross.

And the voice of reason has spoken. I suspect someone has a direct line to my SWMBO

 

[Auger]

I would think a better way to experiment with it would be, save some of the liquid (a gallon or so?), chill it, skim off the fat, then add a small amount to a blond or something just to see how the flavor comes through, if you really want to find out.

 

[zmanzorro]

Flying Dog recently made a Summer Ale with Old Bay seasoning called Dead Rise. I think it's only available in the Maryland area, so I can't say personally how well it turned out.

 

[Darwin18]

Urgh....sounds like a terrible, terrible idea. You could try making a beer with Old Bay - now that would be interesting.

 

[chocotaco]

Sounds awful. Also, I'm sure Dogfish Head is already working on this, so just wait a bit and see how theirs turns out.

 

[Melana]

Save the boil water for a 'shrimp boil martini'. sure beats ruining a batch of beer!

 

[Auger]

Haha yes, garnish with a raw clam!

 

[cjgenever]

You should invest in some serious volumes of mouthwash to get that flavor out when you're done! NOW GO BREW IT:-D

 

[Yoseff]

You'll never know until you try it.

That being said, I see it as being a lot like ranch and beer:
Ranch goes good with pretty much everything. Beer goes good with everything. They sure as heck do not go good with each other.

 

[elkshadow]

I'm with dude who said to concentrate it and use it as a sauce or stock base. Fermenting it sounds like a horrible idea.

 

[thirstydeerbrew]

Do a gallon!!


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[KegWrangler]

I think the amount of salt needed to make shrimp taste good basically makes it sea water. Who doesn't like a nice tall glass of carbonated ocean?

"Water, water everywhere, so let's all take a drink" - Homer Simpson

 

[worlddivides]

Sounds like a serious waste of shrimp (and all the other ingredients). You'd be taking an absolutely delicious food and turning it into an absolutely undeniably disgusting drink.

 

[Kdubbs]

Dogfish made a lobster chocolate stout http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/brewpub-exclusives/choc-lobster.htm

I made an oyster stout last year and it was pretty awesome. I say give it a go.

 

[fuelish]

I would think the salt content would seriously inhibit fermentation.....something about osmotic pressure and yeast cells....I ain't no fermentation scientist, but....put too much salt in a bread dough mix, it'll effectively be dead, won't rise....I used to be a baker in a previous career life

 

[njs170]

Like its was already stated your only wasting some LME and yeast! Go for it! The worse thing is you dump it if it taste like ****. Live outside the box!