Basting a turkey with beer

We usually just baste our Christmas turkey with a light lager of some kind, but I’m curious to see if anyone uses another style of beer to impart better flavor onto the bird. Anyone?

Merry Christmas, by the way :christmas_tree:

Sadly cooking with beer is not tolerated in our house. But I’ve always wanted to use an injector to put some tang in the bird. Maybe an English Old Ale! Fullers Vintage!

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How well would a turkey absorb the flavours from a beer? And what kind of styles would be better for a fairly conventional stuffed turkey?

Injections (I’ve done those not involving beer) tend to mix with the juices - so the drier the turkey the less the flavor. But the drippings for gravy tend to pick up the flavors. I like to inject somewhat under the skin. Maybe that’s inverse basting. :slight_smile:

For beer style I’d think avoiding strong flavors like hops, coffee, chocolate might be good. Old Ales and Doppelbocks seem tempting. A good citrusy wit might be nice. Wish I could try this stuff.

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Ah, so it’s more important to consider where the gravy is going than anything else. What about a yeasty Belgian beer? We’re all guessing, of course.

I’ll try it in October for Thanksgiving and revive the thread :joy:

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A few years back instead of water in the drip pan , while using my smoker, we added Michelob Dark lager …when we smoked the turkey over night…ended up putting damn near a 12 pack in it ( and me).
Turkey was delicious. so tender and juicy.with just a hint of malt.

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And some things probably won’t be improved with beer: