After taking a bit of a brewing break for a few months I decided it was time to come back with something unique and manly. When I think of manly I think of three things; Beer, Chew & Bacon. Since the first one is automatically included, I passed it over. My Smoked Stout is basically liquid chew spit so I checked that off the list. That leaves one thing, bacon!
Okay, so maybe above is a bit of a fabrication but I was “inspired” by a thread on BeerAdvocate about using bacon in a martini. After further discussion another beer blogger’s ideas eventually gave me the technique I was going to use (see Buffalo Wing Beer – big thanks to Ryan for the help on this). I’m going to take about 4 oz of bacon fat and 4 oz of Vodka (unfortunately Everclear isn’t sold in Minnesota) and give them a shake. I’ll try to shake the mixture for a good day or so to make sure the alcohol gets nice and bacon-y. Once that happens, I’ll toss it in the freezer until the fat freezes and drain off the bacon flavored Vodka. Then I’ll repeat a couple more times to make sure all fat is gone. Then I’ll add the appropriate amount of bacon alcohol at bottling. More on this when I actually do it.
Sticking with the whole bacon theme I thought that I would just make this beer somewhat breakfast themed. I want to do an Imperial Stout of some kind and I’ll add some oatmeal to the mash and maple syrup to the boil to solidify the whole breakfast thing. Then in the secondary I’m going to add approximately an ounce of toasted American oak that I’ve had soaking in bourbon for about 2 weeks. Everything else is fairly straight forward. I want a light chocolate/coffee thing underneath without being too harsh or roasted/charred. I’m not 100% sure how much of the bacon will actually come through with all these big flavors it’ll be fun finding out.
Brewed on April 15th 2010
Recipe
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Batch Size – 2.5 Gallons
Boil Size – 3.6 Gallons
Total Grains – 11.3 lbs
Total Fermentables – 12.05 lbs
Anticipated OG - 1.113
Boil Time - 90 min
Bitterness – 69.5 IBU's
Grains
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9.0lbs Maris Otter (2.28 SRM) – 74.7%
0.5lbs Cara-Pils (0.05 SRM) – 4.1%
0.3lbs Crystal 120 (2.60 SRM) – 2.5%
0.5lbs Black Malt (18.08 SRM) – 4.1%
0.5lbs Chocolate Malt (12.65 SRM) – 4.1%
0.5lbs Oats Raw (0.08 SRM) – 4.1%
0.75lbs Maple Syrup (1.9 SRM) – 6.2%
Hops
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0.5oz Northern Brewer (8.0% Pellet) – 120 min
0.5oz Northern Brewer (8.0% Pellet) – 30 min
1.0oz Willamette (5.0% Pellet) – 15 min
Yeast
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Wyeast 1056 American Ale (73-77%, 60-72%)
Extras
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1.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – 5 min
1 tsp Irish Moss – 5 min
