Back in January, we invited people over to eat some bacon and brew some beer. It was awesome. So we’re doing it again. 10 months later.
Last time we brewed an extract clone of Bell’s Best Brown. It turned out great. I think we might still have some to share, actually.
This time, we’ll be doing the infamous Rye Dry Stout. All grain baby. All grain.
It all happens this Saturday, 10/23. I’ll start the water boiling around 10am, and have bacon and eggs and other suchness ready to go around that time as well.
If you’d like to join, shoot me an email (pj [dot] hoberman [at] gmail [dot] com), leave a comment, text me, tweet at me, call me, smoke signals… Whatever your preferred method of contacting me might be.
While not directly related to this post, I did have some bacon steak at Oceanaire a while back...
So my first attempt at bacon bourbon (for a maple bacon bourbon stout) wasn’t so great. I left the bacon in the bourbon for over a week, filtered it, froze it, filtered it, and tried it.
And almost passed out from dehydration on the spot. It was so salty! Ever take a big gulp of water in the ocean? Add salt.
However, after the Dead Sea-esque salinity dissipated, I did feel great. I felt like I’d just had some bacon. So there’s that.
Here are some pictures from the first attempt:
The tin foil apparatus - keeps the bacon somewhat vertical, and the oil drips through holes in the foil
Baked the bacon at 350˚ until the oil starting foaming. That was the signal.
The bacon is almost oil free. And crispy! Hard not to eat it.
The bacon is in 16 oz of bourbon.
Bacon Drip - filtered through a coffee filter
My next attempt will be different. This was fun, and made the condo smell awesome, but the result wasn’t great. I asked my buddy James, who’s getting his PhD in Chemistry, how to dilute the salt flavor. He said lots of water (probably more than the 5 gallons of wort) or to use dialysis. Not gonna do that.
I then came across a video (sorry – forget who sent this to me) about a bartender who makes a bacon-infused old-fashioned. I like this method, and might try it.
Whatever method I try next, I’m thinking uncured bacon is the way to go.
I’m also thinking about where the bacon flavor we all love comes from. Is it from the meat itself, or from the grease? I might, rather than soaking bacon in bourbon, just dump grease in, and fat wash it after a few hours. Meaning, freeze it, skim off the grease, filter, repeat as necessary.
As has been the trend for the past year or so, Brew Your Own and Zymurgy magazines come out with issues directly related to what I’m working on. Seriously, this happens every issue. When I’m thinking about reusing yeast, they come out with articles about it. Building my own equipment? Article. Bacon beer, and breakfast in beer in general? Article.
I’m relatively sure they’re bugging my condo, and I’m totally cool with that. It does feel good to know that Kell and I are thinking of things that the industry is interested in, before it is written in the publications.
That’s it for now. I still have a pint of the bourbon if you want to try it…
The problem is getting the bacon flavor in the beer. There has been discussion on various forums, and some breweries (Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery) have even made commercial examples. The main options tend to be smoking your own malt with bacon, using bacon bits, etc etc blah blah I WANT TO USE REAL BACON.
So, here’s my plan.
I’m going to put a slotted baking sheet over a regular flat baking sheet. I’m going to make some sort of awesome contraption of tin foil that will keep the bacon somewhat vertical. Like seats, for the bacon. I’ll take a picture when I get this going so that that makes sense. Then I’m going to bake the bacon at 400˚ (random choice of temperature) until it is super crispy. The hope is that this will cause the least amount of grease possible, while still making awesome bacon. For this first attempt, I’ll get normal bacon, not flavored with anything (like maple, pepper, whatever). I’ll also hope for thin bacon for this first attempt. Science!
Once it is super crispy, but NOT BURNT, I’ll break it up into smaller pieces, and soak it in some bourbon. Not sure what kind yet. I’m open to suggestions. The amount of bourbon will be determined by my stout recipe, which I haven’t written yet.
This vat, or at least jar of bourbon with bacon will sit in the fridge for a few weeks. I’m thinking I’ll do this tomorrow (Saturday, March 6th), and let it soak for 2-3 weeks. Hopefully any excess grease and fat will congeal and float to the top in the fridge. This will be skimmed away.
When the soaking is done, I’ll pour the liquid through a coffee filter. Probably two coffee filters. Twice. No fat, no chunks.
The first ever Breakfast & Brewing is planned for this Sunday (12/20).
Around 11am, we’ll have omelets, bacon, coffee, and more, and maybe even some Fraggle Rock or Pinky and the Brain.
Around 12 or so, we’ll kick off the brew. I’m not sure what style we’re going to make yet, but it will be a partial-mash of deliciousness.
If you really want to see a certain style, leave a comment or ping me on Twitter. And make sure you sign up for the newsletter to get these notices ASAP.
Whether you want to be a part of every step of the process, or just hang out with like-minded beer people, this should be a fun day.
If you want to join, reply to this email. I need a head count for bacon purchasing, and I’ll give you directions and whatnot.
Too many cooks in the kitchen? Psh. Found this image at Ruthie Cherry Fine Art. Check them out, it's good stuff.
I have an idea.
Ok, I have a lot of ideas. How cool would it be if you could blink and be somewhere else in the world? See? Ideas.
Anyway, I have some ideas based in reality as well.
After some pretty intense discussions with my roommate Jim this weekend, I have an idea that I’m going to do right now. Do you have any idea how awesome it is to have good friends who push back on your ideas? Over good beer? It’s a great thing to have in life.
Right. My idea.
I’m going to make beer.
And you’re invited.
Starting in December, at least one Sunday a month, I’m going to do Breakfast and Brewing. Fancy title, I know.
Here’s the plan. Come over around 11am on a Sunday. We (we being the collective housemates of.. our house) will make breakfast. Bacon, eggs, coffee. There may or may not be awesome cartoon watching – narf! – and there may or may not be bloody mary components available.
Then around noon or 1, we’ll make beer. No matter your level of brewing experience, you can help. I, or someone else with some brewing knowledge will explain things in as little or much detail as you want. If you help, you get to take some beer home with you (a month later).
There are many more details, but that’s the gist of it.
What do you think? Want to come over and help me make some beer?
[edit] If you want to be alerted to these awesome Breakfast and Brew days, or to new posts in general, sign up for the mailing list.
Around 11am, we’ll have omelets, bacon, coffee, and more, and maybe even some Fraggle Rock or Pinky and the Brain.
Starting a Brewery 