Smoking malt and meat?

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dmbsteve

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I want to start smoking my own malt at home, which I have read is pretty easy to do. I also read somewhere that some breweries are starting to actually smoke their malts with meat at the same time. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried this and how it turned out. I would assume it would give the malt a more meaty smoke (bacon) taste, which is actually what I'm going for. Next time I get a hankerin for some pork shoulder, I think I'll throw a couple of pounds of malt in there with it and see what happens. Any thoughts?

I typically smoke meats between 200-225 deg F. Would that be too hot for the malt and potentially cause any problems with extraction during mash?
 
I doubt the meat will do much for flavor to the malt. The smoke in smokers takes over. I really doubt you will smell much meat, but if you use a sauce you might get some of that aroma. Obviously, put the Malt on a higher rack than the meat.

I smoked a couple pounds of cheese yesterday and the rack has been sititing in soap water since. Pulled it out today and it still smelled of smoke.

A little goes a long ways....
 
It's interesting this thread came up, as I've been thinking about this exact same question. I'd been researching some concepts for a bacon beer, and came across some blurbs about a beer done as a one-off by Brooklyn Brewery, and the description is that it used malt smoked along with bacon at a smokehouse in TN. They also did something called "fat washing," which I don't fully understand, so I'm not sure how much of the bacon flavor came from that vs. the smoked malt.

I've got a good friend who is into smoking, and we've been thinking about giving this a try...It may be a while, but if we ever do go ahead and try this, I'll post back.
 
Thanks for the replies. It makes sense that smoking the meat wouldn't necessarily add any meat flavors to the malt. The smoke itself would be the predominant flavor.

biochemedic - I also remember reading about fat washing somewhere. I'll do some digging. Keep me posted on what you find as well. On a similar note, I saw a video on youtube from the Extreme Beer Fest last year, where a brewery had added bacon to the secondary. They called it "dry porking". Sounds delicious to me. You might want to research that as well.
 
I might just have to make that recipe for the bacon beer. It would probably be good to substitute a couple of lbs of smoked malt for the pale, for just a touch of smoke to complement the bacon flavor. I'll probably just buy the rauchmalt the first time around and try smoking my own the next time. A smoked bacon porter sounds mighty tasty! That's the kind of beer I had in mind when I first posted this thread. Thanks for the link. Let me know what you end up doing with your bacon beer. In the article it talked about making a bacon extract with a liquor like vodka. I think that is the "fat washing" process that you were talking about. I'm sure that would leave less fat in the secondary than "dry hogging" which would make sanitizing the carboy afterwards a little easier.
 
Just to update everyone...I brewed the "bacon beer" recipe that passedpawn posted in the link. Sounded like a winner, so I had to try it. I will be racking to secondary tomorrow. I'm going to experiment with about 1/2 gal by dry hogging with some bacon (oven cooked and added to secondary as described in the BYO article). I figured that way, I won't ruin a whole batch if it turns out too "meaty". My wife and friends think I'm insane. But I don't care! I can't wait for this beer to be ready!
 
I'm sure its a story that has played out many times before...at a party once my friend and I got into the dudes fridge and found some bacon and decided we needed to have it. Once fried up I began dipping it into the beer and thought, man there needs to be a bacon beer...you are living the dream.
 
I'm cooking the bacon right now.

Glad to see there are other crazy people like me out there! :mug:

By the way, thanks for all the input everyone. Believe it or not, this thread was my first post. I can't believe all the interest in this. Glad to be a part of this community. You guys rock! :rockin:
 
OK. I've got 1/2 gal on 3 pieces of cooked bacon (amounted to 1.35oz after cooking). This is probably an extreme amount from what I have read (about 1 oz per gal is recommended in the BYO article), but I wanted to go balls out, since I only have 1/2 gal at stake. A couple of notes about the beer so far....Smelled heavenly as soon as I popped the top of the primary. The small taste that I had reminded me a lot of the Schlenkerla marzen, although I haven't had one in a couple of years. Very meaty as I had hoped.

I don't have lagering capabilities, so I used the WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast that another member (DubbelDach) won a competition with. This is the first time I have ever used this yeast and I must say that it flocculates very well. This is the clearest beer I have ever had coming out of primary. Unfortunately I'm sure I kicked up some yeast fumbling with the damn racking cane trying to stop the siphon when I saw how fast the 1/2 gal growler was filling up. Anyway, a week or so in secondary should fix that.

Kudos again to passedpawn for the recipe, and to DubbelDach for the 5gal ale version that I actually brewed.

I've got a bottle of Schlenkerla Eiche Dopplebock, that I can't wait to taste side by side with this (both the regular and dry hogged versions). Now it's late and I'm going to bed to dream about this beer :)
 
Drank the first of the smoked beer (non dry hogged version) this weekend. Stellar! Nice robust smokiness but very clean and drinkable, almost lager-like. I'm giving the the dry hogged beer another week to make sure they are fully carbonated. I only ended up with 4 bottles of it.

Scruffy1207 - How is your bacon porter coming along?
 
dmbsteve said:
Drank the first of the smoked beer (non dry hogged version) this weekend. Stellar! Nice robust smokiness but very clean and drinkable, almost lager-like. I'm giving the the dry hogged beer another week to make sure they are fully carbonated. I only ended up with 4 bottles of it.

Scruffy1207 - How is your bacon porter coming along?

I will let you know in a week :) almost done
 
Cracked open the first of the dry hogged beer tonight. Definitely can taste the bacon. It cuts right through the smoke and comes through even more than I expected. But it's surprisingly very drinkable. I actually prefer it to the non-dry hogged which is also very good. I finished the bottled in about 20 minutes. Maybe my tolerance for the bacon flavor is higher than the average person, but I would have no problem drinking these in a session...just wish I had more than just 4 bottles. I will have to do all 5 gallons next time, now that I am satisfied with the results.

Only problem is that the residual fat from the bacon absolutely killed the head. It had good carbonation, but the head receded within a second and left no lacing whatsoever. I will consider fat washing next time instead of dry hogging to improve head retention.

There were even small particles of bacon fat that had coagulated to the bottom of the bottom of the bottle. But I think that gave it some character. That way you know it's got real bacon in it! :)

Overall, I'm proud of this one, and will make it again....5 gallons next time, with about 12 oz of bacon. :rockin:
 
Cracked open the first of the dry hogged beer tonight. Definitely can taste the bacon. It cuts right through the smoke and comes through even more than I expected. But it's surprisingly very drinkable. I actually prefer it to the non-dry hogged which is also very good. I finished the bottled in about 20 minutes. Maybe my tolerance for the bacon flavor is higher than the average person, but I would have no problem drinking these in a session...just wish I had more than just 4 bottles. I will have to do all 5 gallons next time, now that I am satisfied with the results.

Great to hear a positive update!

Only problem is that the residual fat from the bacon absolutely killed the head. It had good carbonation, but the head receded within a second and left no lacing whatsoever.

I've experienced this both with my coconut porter as well as with my chocolate chipotle stout...even the smallest amount of oil seems to kill the head retention. I've wondered if you could "overwhelm" this by putting in a portion of something like wheat, carafoam, dextrin malt, etc. that promotes head retention? When I actually do try this bacon thing, it will be with an oatmeal stout base, and I'll mash a little warmer to make a more dextrinous wort to see if it help with the head retention.

I will consider fat washing next time instead of dry hogging to improve head retention.

Did you ever find any further information about what this technique of "fat washing" actually entails?

There were even small particles of bacon fat that had coagulated to the bottom of the bottom of the bottle. But I think that gave it some character. That way you know it's got real bacon in it! :)
Overall, I'm proud of this one, and will make it again....5 gallons next time, with about 12 oz of bacon. :rockin:

Not sure how I feel about actual fat globules! How exactly did you cook the bacon? I'd been planning on doing in under the broiler with a drip tray so most of the fat drips out, then using parchment paper to soak up as much additional grease as possible.
 
Did you ever find any further information about what this technique of "fat washing" actually entails?.


Fat washing is very easy to do. I did it with a bottle of cheap vodka (VERY cheap vodka) cook some bacon and put the slightly cooled bacon grease in a jar. I use a 1 quart mason jar. pour vodka in, put a lid on and shake the crap out of it. repeat several times over the next 4-8 hours. then stick the jar in the fridge for 24 hours to cool and solidify the fat. remove the fat and then filter through coffee filters to remove any left over fat. (I triple filter but that's just my preference). you now have vodka that is bacon flavored. it'll smell like bacon, you get the flavor of bacon, the saltiness, the smoke...everything.
 
Fat washing is very easy to do. I did it with a bottle of cheap vodka (VERY cheap vodka) cook some bacon and put the slightly cooled bacon grease in a jar. I use a 1 quart mason jar. pour vodka in, put a lid on and shake the crap out of it. repeat several times over the next 4-8 hours. then stick the jar in the fridge for 24 hours to cool and solidify the fat. remove the fat and then filter through coffee filters to remove any left over fat. (I triple filter but that's just my preference). you now have vodka that is bacon flavored. it'll smell like bacon, you get the flavor of bacon, the saltiness, the smoke...everything.

Interesting, so it's essentially just an alcohol extraction...I think a side-by-side comparison is in order, or perhaps a split batch between dry hogging and fat wash extract.

So you just use the grease by itself...no actual bacon in the vodka?
 
Interesting, so it's essentially just an alcohol extraction...I think a side-by-side comparison is in order, or perhaps a split batch between dry hogging and fat wash extract.

So you just use the grease by itself...no actual bacon in the vodka?

just the grease... after all, the fat is where the flavor is..
 
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