Before I get into the glory that was my Wisconsin beer haul, I thought I would give a quick update on the bacon beer process. More specifically, I am referring to the process of fat washing.
I had heard of the practice before when individuals have wanted to use real ingredients instead of using extracts in their beer. The general sense is to get the taste of something fatty inside your beer without going through the normal troubles. Fats and oils tend to ruin head retention, and more importantly facilitate a rancid beer. Hence why you can't just throw something like bacon into your boil and expect everything to go off without a hitch.
Of course, as everyone knows (or the 2 people that read this blog), I decided to embrace my American roots and include bacon in my beer. I can't take credit for going about this alone as I tried to follow what "Ryan Brews" did with his
hot wing beer. Unfortunately, I am still an idiot and did not see the more
comprehensive steps he laid out before trying my first experiment. I won't go into too much detail as he seems to be able to explain the process much better than I, but I will point out some differences in my approach that I will be changing in order to better match his.
I went out and bought some apple smoked bacon and quickly cooked three strips. I wanted the distinctive applewood bacon smell and taste, so no big surprise here. Afterwards, instead of adding the fat to the vodka, I added the actual strips. I had read somewhere that this was a good way to make your own, but after observing my results, I believe the fat may impart a much strong smell and taste (It is the fat that the alcohol interacts with and just the strips leaves less fun in the glass).
After placing the strips in the glass, I let it sit for one full day. I would have let it sit a little longer, but I was at my parents doing all of this and needed to leave. Isn't procrastination fun? Anyways, the liquid looked a disgusting murky brown with small chunks of meat suspended in the glass after becoming dislodged from the strips. I removed the large strips and placed the glass in the freezer. As everyone knows (well, I'm hoping for the sake of our education system), alcohol has a lower freezing point than water. As a result, the fat on top of the glass will freeze and the alcohol will be left alone beneath it. After this, the fat was broken through and put through a coffee filter for good measure into another glass. I didn't have the time, but I would highly suggest repeating the freezing process at least a couple of times. Fat in beer = sad face when trying to drink beer.
Unfortunately, the sweet stout in secondary fermentation wasn't finished after the addition of maple syrup before I had to leave to head back to Chicago. That means, I was not able to bottle the new beer. Although a bummer, I think it is for the best. When I head back I am going to redo the fat wash technique one more time. I was only able to use some really cheap vodka as that is all that was lying around. As a result, the character seemed a little more rough than I would have liked with a rubbing alcohol smell being fairly strong and pushing what little bacon there was out of the way. As well, instead of adding strips I will be adding just the bacon grease instead. I'm hoping this will give a slightly larger taste. I don't want anything overpowering, but most certainly something stronger than the first concoction.
I will update with my second attempt when I get around to it. Also, apologies for the blurry pictures of the filtered bacon vodka. They are a product of my father. Apologies as well for this post that is most likely riddled with errors. It is a product of me. I could edit it, but I just don't care.
Appearance- An opaque black color as no light appears to shine through. A small tan heard disappears almost entirely except for a small ring, but this is a growler that I got earlier in the weeks so that probably has something to do with it. Small amounts of lacing as well.
Overall- I have been looking forward to this beer and it did not disappoint. Incredibly smooth for its size and its combination of chocolate and roasted malts while still managing to balance out the alcohol. Also, look at that label. Seriously. Look at it. How could you say no to Big Hugs? Just google that and have fun with all the variations.
