Burning Question: Do people really crack eggs into a beer?

There was a phrase in vogue during the 1940s. No one seems to know its origin, and the line dropped from the popular vernacular soon after.

It is such a distant memory, that trying it out only drew puzzled faces from a majority of people. “I heard it once, a long time ago,” says Adam Alonso, bartender at Marina’s The Brass Tap, in the lone positive response.

Oh yeah—it might be useful to share the phrase. “What do you want, egg in your beer?” was meant to imply that someone already had it good and was asking for too much. But just who puts raw egg in a perfectly good beer?

“I’ve heard of egg in wine,” says Jeffrey Vitalich, brewmaster at Hidden Hills Brewing & Blending in Carmel. Syllabub—a concoction involving both—was the espresso martini of the 17th century. Posset, also commonly made with the two, made it into Shakespeare at least a couple of times.

“I definitely don’t want an egg in my beer,” acknowledges Mike Durant of Hops & Fog Brewing Co., set to open soon in Pacific Grove. “But it’s pretty common in cocktails.”

Indeed, such staples as flips, fizzes and the pisco sour owe their frothy richness to a shake with egg white. Writing in My Recipes, Anna Hezel points out that an egg mixed with beer or wine, and even honey and herbs, was a middle ages cure-all. In his 1862 cocktail bible Bar-Tender’s Guide, Jerry Thomas even bothered to print a recipe for Sherry and Egg which is just that—an egg in a glass of sherry. But in beer?

“Maybe in a lager or pilsner,” adds Alonso with a frown evident even over the phone. “But then again, why would you do that? It seems like a waste of egg to me.”

Perhaps a waste of beer, also. Yet there is precedent for such a thing.

In an episode of the 2000s HBO series The Wire, Ziggy joins the crew of dockworkers for a breakfast of raw eggs cracked into beer at a dive bar. “Most important goddamn meal of the goddamn day,” he says before they down their drinks.

This questionable combination is alternately known as a “miner’s breakfast” or an “Irish breakfast.” The practice is documented back to the 1800s in Mark Noon’s Yuengling: A History of America’s Oldest Brewery and credited to Pennsylvania mining towns. According to Noon, the men would often down a shot of rotgut whiskey beforehand, possibly to gather courage for what followed.

In an age when brewing practices were not as refined, however, there was also a practical purpose for dumping eggs into one’s beer—especially light ales and lagers.

“The egg would clarify the beer,” Vitalich explains.

As the egg sank toward the bottom of the glass, it would drag impurities that clouded the beer to the bottom, leaving a nice, golden brew. That problem, however, has been solved by more modern techniques, although as evident in The Wire, a morning round of eggs in beer remains a fixture in certain corners, from the old industrial towns of the Eastern U.S. to Vietnam.

A better option, Alonso says, would be to pair beer with a dish of eggs, any style. “I would go with a stout—and imperial or barrel-aged—for the bready notes,” he observes, adding that the coffee notes would complete the breakfast scenario. “A milk stout would be a great pairing.”

So in answer to the Burning Question, yes—egg in beer is a thing. Too much of a good thing? Probably not.

The phrase, then, remains a mystery. The odd combination, however, piques the interest of modern brewmasters—if only out of curiosity.

“After we finish I’m going to look it up,” Durant says.