Food

Bierwurst (German Beer Sausage)

Beef · Charcuterie · German · Pork · Sausage · Smoked Foods

Bierwurst (German Beer Sausage)
Prep 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 24 hours curing
Cook 3 hours
Serves About 5.5 lb / 2.5 kg — one large chub
Level Hard

A big, red-brown, smoked slicing sausage of beef and pork with visible pieces of fat set in a fine, garlicky batter. It is a scalded sausage like Lyoner, but where Lyoner is perfectly smooth, Bierwurst is built from two textures: a finely ground, cured lean batter carrying coarser-cut fat. That mosaic slice, plus garlic, paprika and mustard seed, is what separates it from its smooth neighbours. Despite the name, the usual German Bierwurst contains no beer. It is a sausage to eat with beer, sliced on bread in a beer garden or a Brotzeit. American “beer sausages” that put beer in the mix are a different idea.

It exists for the same reason as the rest of the Brühwurst family: the curing and smoking let a butcher turn beef and pork trim into something that slices clean and keeps for a couple of weeks in the cold. The formula is built from Marianski’s Bierwurst, with the cure recomputed on the meat block, and it is untested as written.

Ingredients

MEAT BLOCK (2,270 g / 5 lb), % of meat weight

  • 757 g (1 lb 11 oz) lean beef, chuck or shank trim — 33.3%
  • 757 g (1 lb 11 oz) lean pork, shoulder — 33.3%
  • 756 g (1 lb 11 oz) pork back fat — 33.3%

CURE, SALT AND ICE (% of meat weight)

  • 41 g salt (1.8%), split between the beef and the pork
  • 5.7 g Cure #1 (2.5 g/kg = 156 ppm on the meat block), split likewise
  • 250 g (9 oz) ice water (11%)

SPICE (% of meat weight)

  • 7.5 g white pepper (0.33%)
  • 5 g sweet paprika (0.22%)
  • 2.5 g ground mustard seed (0.11%)
  • 9 g garlic, finely minced (0.39%)
  • 1.2 g nutmeg (0.055%)
  • 1.2 g mace (0.055%)
  • 90 mm fibrous casing, or a beef bung cap

Directions

Key ingredients

Black Pepper · Mustard

  1. In the collection: beef, pork and back fat in equal thirds, garlic and mustard seed. Its smooth cousin is Lyoner (Fleischwurst); the American line of big smoked slicing sausages runs through Smoked Bologna.
  2. Cure the lean a day ahead: cut the beef and pork into cubes, grind each through a 10 mm plate, and mix each separately with its half of the salt and Cure #1. Pack into containers, press out the air, and refrigerate for 24 hours. The pre-cure fixes the red colour and extracts protein, so the batter binds better and the slice stays pink.
  3. Fine-grind the lean: next day, grind the cured beef through 3 mm and mix it with the ice water until sticky; then grind the cured pork through 3 mm and combine it with the beef and the spices. Keep it below 12 °C / 54 °F. This is the binding phase that will hold the fat pieces in place.
  4. Coarse-cut the fat: grind the back fat, nearly frozen, through an 8 mm plate. Cold fat cuts cleanly into the distinct white particles that show in the slice; warm fat smears into the lean and the mosaic disappears.
  5. Mix: fold the fat into the lean batter just until it is evenly distributed. Over-mixing now starts to smear the fat.
  6. Stuff: into the soaked fibrous casing or bung, very tight, no air. Prick any pockets with a sterile needle and tie off.
  7. Smoke: dry the surface, then smoke at 60 °C / 140 °F for about an hour, until the casing is reddish-brown.
  8. Poach: in water at 78–80 °C / 172–176 °F until the centre reads 71 °C / 160 °F. A 90 mm chub takes about two hours; trust the probe, not the clock.
  9. Cool: 10–15 minutes in cold water, then hang briefly to let the steam come off, then refrigerate overnight before slicing.
  10. Decision point: slice it cold. Distinct fat particles and a pink, tight lean phase mean it worked. Grey patches mean the cure did not get through the meat; greasy streaks mean the fat warmed during mixing.

Notes

Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. Backbone: Marianski’s Bierwurst (meatsandsausages.com) — beef, pork and back fat 300/300/300 with 100 ml water per 1,000 g; salt 16 g, Cure #1 2.0 g, white pepper 3, paprika 2, nutmeg 0.5, mace 0.5, ground mustard 1, garlic 3.5; meats cured 24 hours; lean to 3 mm, fat to 8 mm; 90 mm casing; smoke 60 °C for an hour; cook at 80 °C for two hours. Deviations, numbered: (1) Spices and salt are moved onto the meat-only basis (Marianski’s per-1,000 g includes the water), which raises each slightly. (2) Cure #1 is set at 2.5 g/kg of meat = 156 ppm. Marianski’s 2.0 g per 1,000 g of meat plus water works out to about 2.2 g/kg of meat, or 139 ppm. Both are legal; this one is at the comminuted limit and the arithmetic is shown. (3) Cooking is to 71 °C / 160 °F internal rather than Marianski’s time alone. UNTESTED.

Where Bierwurst came from. Bierwurst is a Bavarian and southern German Brühwurst, sold as a sliced cold cut. No reliable source dates it. The name is usually explained as the sausage you eat with beer rather than one made with it. That is plausible and widely repeated, but undocumented. Usage is also loose: in some regions “Bierwurst” is used for a fine Lyoner-type sausage, while elsewhere the same word means this coarse, garlicky type. Bierschinken is a different product again — a scalded sausage with large pieces of cured ham.

Variations. All-pork versions are common. Some German butchers stuff it in a natural beef bung and smoke it harder. In the United States, “beer sausage” or “beerwurst” is often a dry, salami-like stick or a fresh link with beer in the mix; neither is this sausage.

Sourcing and gear. A 90 mm fibrous casing needs soaking, a stuffer with a wide horn, and a firm hand. A smaller 60 mm casing works and poaches in about 75 minutes. Cold back fat is the one ingredient that makes or breaks the slice; buy it in a slab and freeze it partway before grinding.

Still open. No German food-code text for Bierwurst was read, so its legal definition and minimum lean content are not stated here. The origin date is not documented.

The photo. The photograph is a commercial Bierwurst in its printed wrapper.

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