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Bacon Beer Porter Recipe

Scott Ickes

Grandmaster Brewer
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Location
Vancouver, WA
I've always wanted to try brewing a Bacon Flavored Beer.  There was a brewpub here in Washington that made a bacon flavored pale ale.  I've always thought it would be a good flavor in a Robust Porter.  After some online research, i found a few recipes.

I tweaked learned quite a bit and I learned a lot.  I'm going to bake the bacon in the oven at 350F for about 15 minutes on parchment paper.  This will soak up most of the grease.  I'll bake it until it's crispy, but not burnt.  I'll then use a paper towel to get as much of the grease off of it as I can.  Then I'll put 5 ounces of it in my ninja blender and grind it down to small chunks.  I'll put that in a pint of vodka and let it steep for about a week, while the beer is in primary.  I'll strain the bacon infused vodka into my beer in the secondary.

I found a photo of a bacon flavored stout with a strip of yummy bacon floated on the top.  It's awesome looking.

I'm also posting the recipe that I came up with.  Any thoughts or suggestions or even random comments will be appreciated.
 

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I've made bacon bourbon before, but not bacon beer. I did something like this: http://bacontoday.com/bacon-bourbon/

They say to use the fat, not the meat, for the flavor.

I personally was never able to get all the fat out. I tried repeated freezing, scooping, thawing congealing, freezing, scooping... even tried coffee filters.

Maybe you might have better luck than I.

Do let us know how it comes out.
 
I bought 5lbs of unmilled 2 Row from Bader's. I plan on smoking it at a buddy's house while he smokes some bacon. We are going to use applewood chips that have been soaked in bourbon to simultaneously smoke the bacon and the malt. I think I'll do a small 1 gal batch to see if theres any bacon flavor.
 
Brewmex41 said:
I bought 5lbs of unmilled 2 Row from Bader's. I plan on smoking it at a buddy's house while he smokes some bacon. We are going to use applewood chips that have been soaked in bourbon to simultaneously smoke the bacon and the malt. I think I'll do a small 1 gal batch to see if theres any bacon flavor.

Baders started carrying this a few months ago.  Those that have used it have told me it does a nice job of adding smoked flavor.  The people at Baders are all pretty much exceptional homebrewers in their own right, so they do a good job of giving advice on the quantity to use in the mash without overdoing the smoke character.

http://www.baderbrewing.com/products/us-grains/lb-briess-smoked-malt

I'm debating whether or not to add 2-4 ounces of this to my mash on this recipe.
 
Scott Ickes said:
Brewmex41 said:
I bought 5lbs of unmilled 2 Row from Bader's. I plan on smoking it at a buddy's house while he smokes some bacon. We are going to use applewood chips that have been soaked in bourbon to simultaneously smoke the bacon and the malt. I think I'll do a small 1 gal batch to see if theres any bacon flavor.

Baders started carrying this a few months ago.  Those that have used it have told me it does a nice job of adding smoked flavor.  The people at Baders are all pretty much exceptional homebrewers in their own right, so they do a good job of giving advice on the quantity to use in the mash without overdoing the smoke character.

http://www.baderbrewing.com/products/us-grains/lb-briess-smoked-malt

I'm debating whether or not to add 2-4 ounces of this to my mash on this recipe.

Do you think smoking bacon and base malt simultaneously would add any hints of bacon whatsoever? I plan on doing a test batch regardless, i am just wondering.
 
Brewmex41 said:
Scott Ickes said:
Brewmex41 said:
I bought 5lbs of unmilled 2 Row from Bader's. I plan on smoking it at a buddy's house while he smokes some bacon. We are going to use applewood chips that have been soaked in bourbon to simultaneously smoke the bacon and the malt. I think I'll do a small 1 gal batch to see if theres any bacon flavor.

Baders started carrying this a few months ago.  Those that have used it have told me it does a nice job of adding smoked flavor.  The people at Baders are all pretty much exceptional homebrewers in their own right, so they do a good job of giving advice on the quantity to use in the mash without overdoing the smoke character.

http://www.baderbrewing.com/products/us-grains/lb-briess-smoked-malt

I'm debating whether or not to add 2-4 ounces of this to my mash on this recipe.

Do you think smoking bacon and base malt simultaneously would add any hints of bacon whatsoever? I plan on doing a test batch regardless, i am just wondering.

I really don't know, but I would imagine you'll get much more of the applewood smoke than bacon in your malt.  If you want plain smoked malt, it's only a pound at Baders.  At Baders, 2-row is $1.09 a pound.  So, I guess you'd save $1.90 a pound by smoking your own, but I'm not sure if you'll get bacon too.
 
I wanted to do a bacon porter, then I tried rouge breweries voodoo bacon maple beer.  Cured me of any desire to try it.
 
SharpsRifle said:
I wanted to do a bacon porter, then I tried rouge breweries voodoo bacon maple beer.  Cured me of any desire to try it.

Wow!  That surprises me.  I've heard good things about it and it is what prompted me to want to try one.
 
SharpsRifle said:
I wanted to do a bacon porter, then I tried rouge breweries voodoo bacon maple beer.  Cured me of any desire to try it.

Bacon is great, and beer is great, but I'm not sure I'd like to mix the two.  I saw some Vodka one time advertised.  Bacon vodka, Salmon Vodka.  Ick.  No thanks.....
 
Mtnmangh said:
SharpsRifle said:
I wanted to do a bacon porter, then I tried rouge breweries voodoo bacon maple beer.  Cured me of any desire to try it.

Bacon is great, and beer is great, but I'm not sure I'd like to mix the two.  I saw some Vodka one time advertised.  Bacon vodka, Salmon Vodka.  Ick.  No thanks.....

You just used my name in vain!  Last name is Ickes and pronounced like "ick" "ess".  (Just kidding)  My nickname is Ickie!
 
Do yourself a favor.  Go o one of their brewpubs when you are in Portland. 
I made the drive from Raymond to Portland with a buddy to try that stuff.  It comes in a big expensive bottle.  I tried one sip and couldn't drink the stuff.
You have to remember that Rouge is pretty much a gimmick brewery riding the wave of craft brews.
They use one yeast for everything.  The pub had "mead" that tasted like cider.  They had cask conditioned ale from a pressurized tap. 
They followed up the voodoo maple bacon beer with a voodoo peanut butter and jelly beer.
They pretty much suck in my opinion. 
Who has 20 or 30 beers on tap, various styles, and uses one yeast?


 
My wife and I went to the farmers market in Portland a few months ago.  On the walk back to our car, is one of their pubs.  I had the Brown Ale and loved it.
 
They've got a couple good beers but they also have lots of disappointments.
Swing through and try a big old pink bottle of their maple bacon beer and decide for yourself.
 
Scott Ickes said:
You just used my name in vain!  Last name is Ickes and pronounced like "ick" "ess".  (Just kidding)  My nickname is Ickie!

;D ;D ;D

One yeast for that many beers is kind of weird.  And cask ale should be just that (ale in a cask).  But apparently they are gimmicking enough people in to keep a good business going...
 
SharpsRifle said:
Do yourself a favor.  Go o one of their brewpubs when you are in Portland. 
I made the drive from Raymond to Portland with a buddy to try that stuff.  It comes in a big expensive bottle.  I tried one sip and couldn't drink the stuff.
You have to remember that Rouge is pretty much a gimmick brewery riding the wave of craft brews.
They use one yeast for everything.  The pub had "mead" that tasted like cider.  They had cask conditioned ale from a pressurized tap. 
They followed up the voodoo maple bacon beer with a voodoo peanut butter and jelly beer.
They pretty much suck in my opinion. 
Who has 20 or 30 beers on tap, various styles, and uses one yeast?

Beard beer. Uses a different yeast strain. lol
 
If anyone watches Brew Dogs, they did an episode in Denver. They smoked malt and beef at the same time with the beef on the rack directly above the malt. The beef dripped on the malt as it cooked. Thats kind of what I had in mind when I said I was gonna smoke the bacon and the grain at the same time.
 
Now that sounds pretty cool!!! 

Are you going to stop down and Baders at 10 a.m. this Saturday, October 26 and meet some of our brewclub members as we pick up our ingredients for our Barrell Project?  SharpsRifle is driving down from Raymond, WA for it.  He's then coming over to my house to share a few homebrews and talk beer.  You're welcome to join us at both Baders and at my house.
 
And I'm looking forward to it!  Nothing like spending some time with fellow people who share your hobbies!  New friends, good beer and good B.S.
 
Shoot! I didn't log in until just now. I'm getting ready to take my 14month old son to his first pumpkin patch otherwise I would have. I won't miss the November meeting down at Loowit.
 
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