Questions adding cured meat to brewing process. Wanna try doing lambics with savior flavors.

Experimental home brewing has a recipe that uses 1 lb cooked pork chops in the mash fwiw. Not on my list
Also a belles recipe that uses a bacon vodka tincture

 

Tried it 1 time with bacon. Fried it up, patted it dry, or fairly dry , added it to the secondary. Obviously I did not get all the fat off cause you could see the fat floaters all over the top of the beer.

Skimmed the fat floater and bottled.

Not a good brew at all and drain poured about 4 gallons.

Life is too short to drink sub par beer.

Good luck.

 

Boston Beer also brewed one (tho' not for commercial release), back in the late '90s:

--- Wall Street Journal - Feb. 11, 1998

 

I can't believe that I forgot about the Mangalista Pig Porter that Right Brain Brewing makes here in Michigan. I'm pretty sure that they add pig to the boil, but I don't know anything else about the process. I've never tried the beer, although it gets bottled and has limited distribution.

 

So . . . LOTS to address here:

Why am I not surprised that you are new to homebrewing? All joking aside, just because something works out well in the culinary world, does not mean that it will directly translate into the brewing realm. However, a culinary approach CAN work, such as making that framboise and adding rosemary to it. You can also arrive at a beer with a smoky, meaty character without the use of either, but choosing a Brettanomyces species that gives you that character.

http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Brettanomyces#Phenol_Production

The moment that you'd do something like this, you would no longer be making lambic. I assume that you simply mean "sour beer" when you're using that word. If so, please stop. These are the steps that you must take if you even remotely hope to call your beer "lambic":

https://methodetraditionnelle.org/standards/

Even if you've washed the meat in question, it's just not a great idea, IMO.

Maybe he should try making a Gotlandsdricke?

http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/363.html

 

I will admit, this makes me want to place a piece of cooked bacon into a beer bottle along with some maple syrup and fill it with my Porter... Let sit and see how it is a few days later... muhah

Homebrewing should be fun... Why not, right?

Dogfish did a scrapple beer at some point (processed meat) as well as Lobster at the beach brewpub... So meat can be used... The Lobster beer wasn't actually half bad, nor the scrapple one (they used a low-fat variant to aid head retention).

 

There are instructions for the fat washing process in Experimental Brewing by Beechum and Conn. That's the way I'd approach this.

That being said, I could dig meatier flavors in a stout or something very malty but not sweet. Roast or bready flavors would work well. Not so sure about a sour; maybe if it was just slightly tart and not full blown sour. If you try it out, maybe just do a 1 gallon batch and scale up if you think it would be something you'd like 5 gallons of.

 

There is a local place that does a smoked sour, which is damn delicious. While not exactly the same, if the meat comes across smokey with a bit of "umami", I can see it being quite delicious if done right. May take a few batches to dial in, though...

 

Bacon in secondary, while pies get mashed.

 

Personally, I'd skip the meat (especially a straight up fat addition) and add 5% applewood smoked malt to your sour, then add rosemary in secondary. I've had multiple "smokey" wilds from Oxbow Brewing in ME that are killer. It's not for everyone, but definitely adds another level to the beer. Also had a sour gruit from Earth Eagle with Chaga mushrooms that had a definite "savory" component, and come to think it, they've also done bear, pig, and moose meat sour gruit's that worked well. Maybe check out Butch's book http://eartheaglebrewings.com/against-all-hops-book/

As for rosemary, add in a sprig, let it hangout for a few days, taste, then repeat if you want more flavor. I honestly don't think that sounds like a bad beer at all, especially if you go with a darker base (Flanders, Oud Bruin).