Beer sausage

[cutumup]

I have been making the same beer sausage for 10 years and it’s been great, I have not changed anything and now it crumbles when you cut the links.
I can’t figure it out
Richard

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

cutumup is this just one batch, or has it happened more than once?

[cutumup]

Only on one batch

[processhead]

Is this a fresh sausage or a cured/smoked/cooked sausage?

[cutumup]

This is fresh, Sometimes the fresh chicken sausages crumble apart when you cut them but I’ve never had a pork one do it like this is now.
This is a homemade beer sausage recipe that is 20 years old and I’ve been making it for 10 years

[Dave in AZ]

cutumup
Your recipe and process is kinda required to troubleshoot, if you don’t want folks just guessing…

Did you change the beer?
Crumbliness in sausage can be caused by:

1. Not enough fat–dry and cardboardy
2. Meat worked too much, too high a temp-- fat easily renders out while cooking leaving dry crumbly.
3. Bad bind of fat so it renders out, from not enough working of meat and usually cooked above 160f external temps
4. Cooked at too high a heat, fat renders out starting at 160f external or so, so longer and hot cook with weak binders can lead to dry crumbly
5. Direct rapid acidification of meat before it begins cooking or protein denatured, so below 130f. From adding acid, lime or lemon juice, vinegar… or a very acidic beer.

Anybof those sound like possibilities on this batch?

[processhead]

cutumup

I was kind of wondering about the beer/acidic breakdown connection.
It would take a lot of beer to lower the pH that much though and beer is only mildly acidic.

[Dave in AZ]

processhead said in Beer sausage:

cutumup

I was kind of wondering about the beer/acidic breakdown connection.
It would take a lot of beer to lower the pH that much though and beer is only mildly acidic.

Those dang gueze and sour beers are growing in popularity, see them all over now, some of them are dang near as acidic as lemon juice. Down in the 3s I bet, like drinking flavored vinegar. In a small batch, I bet… not saying he did, just thinking… I saw you made chorizo today, Paul, I bet a sour beer chorizo style, instead of using vinegar, could be pretty good?

[cutumup]

Dave in AZ
I am thinking maybe too lean

[Dave in AZ]

cutumup
Well, here is some good news: with the existence of chili, there can be no such thing as total sausage failure!

[processhead]

Dave in AZ said in Beer sausage:

cutumup
Well, here is some good news: with the existence of chili, there can be no such thing as total sausage failure!

No truer words were ever spoken. A pot of chili is veeerry forgiving when it comes to meat/sausage mistakes.