Deer Jerky and Home Brew (Pic Heavy)
Who doesn't enjoy that title???!!!
Ever since my daughter could walk, she loved hanging out with me in the garage, whether it was just tinkering around...or one of her favorite activities, making venison jerky, summer sausage or the like. Well, she's almost 10 now and other interests occupy a great deal of her time...nail polish, make up, dancing, boys....stuff that makes little girls happy, and make Dad's trigger finger itchy.So when she asked me late this week if we could make deer jerky, it was not only a surprise, but a welcome invitation.
Our set up yesterday morning as we would grind and marinade the meat overnight. My homemade dehydrator makes 6-7 lbs of jerky, so we had 4lbs of venison and 2 lbs of pork/fat. Yes, this deer is almost 3 years old. I found these 2 packages buried while cleaning out my freezer. Typically most people would just throw this meat out, but knowing it had gone from field to freezer with my own hands, I knew it wasn't freezer burnt.
I'm going to miss these times as she grows older and it isn't "cool" to hang out with Dad anymore.
With everything chopped...it was time to start stuffing through the grinder.
Everything ground through the medium and fine plates, then marinated and wrapped to absorb all that flavor overnight.
I had brewed a nice malty brown ale a few weeks ago, so it was time to keg that batch....the perfect addition to the jerky.
This one went straight from primary fermenter into cornelius keg.
Hydrometer reading of 6.7% abv on this batch.
So into the kegerator for forced carbination, and chill overnight. So fast forward to today....back to the jerky. The Cabela's Jerky Blaster makes short and quick work of putting the jerky into nice uniform strips.
Into the home made dehydrator...
It takes about 6 hours total for the jerky to dry to the right consistency. So in the mean time I took the liberty of doing a few quick projects...like wrapping all my folding/nesting handles with stripped paracord.
Whenever jerky is drying in the garage, my bud is never too far away.
And the yield from the day....nesters cup in the picture for scale...
With the jerky done, it was time to hook up the CO2 and tap the keg.
And the finished products of both my efforts....yes, it's a lot of work, but not only is rewarding knowing I made this by hand...when compared to actual cost of purchased jerky and craft beer, the price difference of doing it yourself is staggering. So a great late afternoon snack and some BCUSA....nothing finer. Thanks for looking
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