Fat Bastard Bacon Porter

[JohnnyMac]

I've talking about doing this for a while so if I can make time tomorrow, I'm gonna pull the trigger.

With my apologies to Mike Myers and the Austin Powers franchise, read it and weep.

Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal
Est Original Gravity: 15.638 Plato
Est Final Gravity: 3.773 Plato
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.5 %
Bitterness: 42.6 IBUs
Est Color: 43.8 SRM

19 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) CA (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 76.8 %
2 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 85L (85.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.1 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.1 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (508.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.1 %
1 lbs Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (660.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.0 %
4.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 33.6 IBUs
2.50 oz Fuggles [4.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 9.0 IBUs
2.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 8 -
4.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 9 -
20.00 oz Bacon, Cooked (Secondary 5.0 days) Flavor 10 -

Mash at 154f.

[jeffsmith]

Very interested to hear how this turns out. My brother in law and I have been talking about brewing something very similar.

[mr x]

Should be interesting.

[canuck]

I'm very interested in hearing how this turns out. Keep us posted.

[homebrewcrew]

We were just talking about this at lagerfest tonight. Very excited to see how you do with this recipe.

[JohnnyMac]

Ok fellas, time to get the bacon into the bastard. A guy on the interweb referred to this as 'dry hogging'.

After realizing how much cooked bacon makes up 20oz, I downshifted a little and decided to go with 40 pieces which shook out to 14.6oz cooked weight.

Mmmmmm....bacon.

[mr x]

Sweet.

FYI, the people we are getting the vanilla from also sell gum arabic.

http://www.vanillafoodcompany.ca/Thicke ... -s/105.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jeffsmith]

That's pure awesome.

[dexter]

Ive been dying to try and make a maple bacon brown ale but Im way too chicken shit to waste my bacon on it.


How did it turn out?

[JohnnyMac]

It's still in the secondary, just had a little sample and it sure smells like bacon. The flavor is there but not as pronounced as i want it so I'm gonna let her go a couple more days.

[Jayme]

This sounds like it could be either amazingly good or amazingly gross! haha. Gotta respect going 'whole hog' (so to speak) by brewing a 10 gallon batch of it. I have a lot of weird ideas to try out but have been chicken shit (or maybe just too cheap) to brew a 5 gallon batch. My intent is to make a homebrew sized pilot brewery - probably about 1 gallon - to try more crazy stuff and feel the pain of dumping so much beer.

Did you do anything to remove some of the bacon fat/grease? I guess no matter what you do, you wouldn't get rid of all of it. I imagine there just will be approximately 0 head retention - but if the beer is good, who cares.

[JohnnyMac]

you're right, if it sucks then I'm looking at 10 gallons of gravy base. Or rib marinade as X pointed out.

I pressed the bacon between layers of paper towel, used a full roll, to get as much of the grease out as possible. We'll see about head retention once I get her kegged which will likely be this weekend.

[Jayme]

I guess some people use olive oil for aerating. Maybe bacon fat just made your yeast super healthy? They should be happy at the very least - that was a lot of bacon you fed them!

[JohnnyMac]

Ok, managed to get the bastard kegged last week. The flavor is much more pronounced after letting it age for an extra few days on the bacon. I'm pleased with the aroma and flavor at the warm and flat stage, not too over the top which will want me to have more than one at a time.

Interesting to note, when I drained the conical, looks like any grease/fat clung to the sides. I thought I did a better job with the paper towel method..........

Here's what bacon looks like after sitting in a secondary for a few weeks......

[mr x]

Fucking re-fry that.

[Jayme]

How did the bacon taste? Yeasty?

[Ladd]

hahaha found this while Googling bacon in beer. Was thinking about making a bacon breakfast stout. How did this turn out??? Would you do it again?

[mr x]

It was pretty good.

[LeafMan66_67]

hahaha found this while Googling bacon in beer. Was thinking about making a bacon breakfast stout. How did this turn out??? Would you do it again?

Yes - had this at Hoptoberfest a couple years back and it was good.

[Ladd]

This is awesome! Going to have to "dry hog" my breakfast stout recipe. How was the head retention? Any at all?

[jeffsmith]

hahaha found this while Googling bacon in beer. Was thinking about making a bacon breakfast stout. How did this turn out??? Would you do it again?

Yes - had this at Hoptoberfest a couple years back and it was good.

Same. I remember having a number of glasses of it actually.

[GAM]

Wasn't that this this year? Or is it getting blurry?

Sandy

[jeffsmith]

Wasn't that this this year? Or is it getting blurry?

Sandy

I think it was two years ago if I recall. It was cold and wet that year.

[JohnnyMac]

You're right Jeff, it was on tap at the 2012 Hoptoberfest.

I'd do it again but would go the full 20oz in the secondary next time. I thought it turned out pretty good but just wanted a little more bacony flavor on the back end.

Head retention wasn't an issue as I felt I paper toweled the living shit out of the bacon before adding. No doubt that had an impact on the flavor perception so next time may not be that over zealous with the paper towel.

[mr x]

I wonder if a few percent of smoked malt might compliment the beer as well.