4 replies to this topic

[Doyle]

I am not into making Beer but last weekend I was at Morewine for their sale and the Beer making group was setup in the parking lot. One of the guys has a website called Beercandy and he had samples of a new product that was Beer Jelly. It had Bacon in it and was extremely tasty. Basically Beer, Sugar and Pectin with cooked bacon pieces added at the end.

[KY Rob]

Sounds like a great plan to me! I'm going to have to try to make this at home...

[saramc]

Interesting. I use beer to make my own malt vinegar, figured since I always have mother of vinegars available why not get one in its own container and start feeding it beer and see what happens. Just had some sprinkled on oven fries last night and it was quite tasty, but I suspect what I think it needs some time off the mother with some oak to mellow bit and then bottle, just in time for Christmas gifting. May have to make some beer jelly -- know a lot of people that would love that.

[Tomer1]

How are you keeping it? Vinegars really needs oxygen to blow off some "Off" aromas and round up. I dont think oakiness is needed , it will just add tannins to it. Wine vinegar is usually aged in 6-8 y.o barrels if not older so there are hardly any "oak" left in them.

[saramc]

Right now my vinegar is in glass. I use gallon sun tea jars and actually just cover the large opening with coffee filter and then put the lid of the jar back on top and keep the pour tap on top open. I decant the vinegar to a separate gallon container for aging/mellowing,etc. I will then take that vinegar when desired and have been known to fill a quart jar with dried fruits or fresh herbs, and then eventually decant that and bottle it for use or gifting. It works for me. The oak was going to be an experiment--a friend swore that I should just drop an oak spiral in my malt vinegar to mellow it and I advised it just needs some time or a neutral barrel (which I do not yet own, and I will get a barrel for wine before I get a barrel for vinegar). Nothing wrong with experiments, sometimes you learn the most interesting things.