Bacon, the beloved breakfast staple, regularly turns up in beer these days, usually paired with some maple syrup and coffee. On its own, however, bacon can provide rich flavors that build over the course of a pint so long as you choose your meat wisely.
The idea for the Bacon Brown Ale that Alec Stefansky, brewmaster at Uncommon Brewers in Santa Cruz, California, makes actually came from ice cream. He’d make a candy cap–mushroom ice cream with maple, bits of bacon, and crunched up stroopwafels. And it was the bacon paired with the sweet that started him down the ale path.
Brewing with bacon isn’t as simple as going out to the grocery store, picking up some strips, and dropping them into your recipe.