Why did my choriqueso separate?

Hey reddit, could use your help on a recipe I recently bungled in bulk. I am a decent home chef and like to experiment in the kitchen. I'm a sucker for recipes that fuse regional styles, so for my sourdough croissant pretzels (which I also bungled for known reasons) I decided to make a beer queso in the oven. Easy, breezy, use up a few leftover cheesy, and a good pairing.

I have seen several recipes on social media lately that involve pre-cooked chorizo or sausage crumbled alongside various freshly grated cheeses, salsa, and liquid either smoked on low or in the oven at a high heat. I opted for beer as the initial liquid with cream at the end so that it didn't cook out. I used 1/4lb. chorizo hot links and a 1/4lb of Italian sweet sausages (both pork) that I had cooked and crumbled for the meat, 1lb. of grated cheddar, young gouda, havarti, Oaxacan mozzarella, and a few other melty cheeses, a few heaping tablespoons of homemade smoked salsa verde, and about 8oz. of an IPA and let it roast in a Dutch oven at ~425 for about 15 minutes before adding the cheese and stirring it up.

Once everything was incorporated and melty, I stirred it and made sure to scrape the bottom, and put it back in for another 10. After that, it was bubbling nicely and I took it off the heat and added heavy cream augmented with a little cornstarch, a few tablespoons of evaporated milk and crema Mexicana, and some chopped scallions. I added a tiny bit of xanthan gum and sodium citrate once it was cooled, plus a few Kraft Singles and a coupla slugs of Calabrian chile vinegar. By all means, I feel like it should have been perfect, but it immediately started to separate. I tried to mitigate first by letting it cool, and it did thicken and coat a chip well, but the underlying texture was grainy without the meat/scallions/salsa.

It felt like it had so much potential and I'm especially annoyed because I made a large batch and I feel like there's no way to recover it! Where did I go wrong?

submitted by /u/insanearcane
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