Non-traditional Ingredient - Best/Worst Experiences

I'm interested to hear your stories of triumph and horror in regard to making beer with ingredients that fall outside of the 4 primary categories. What are your best and/or worst experiences with ingredient experimentation?

Good Experiences: Cherries, blackberries, wine grapes, peaches, papaya, date, raisin, fig, rye/pumpernickel bread, cocoa powder, ancho/guajillo chilies, honey, cinnamon, dark candi syrup, canned pumpkin, coffee beans, orange zest, vanilla bean, various liquors/wines, molasses (and other unrefined sugars), cane/corn sugar, coriander, spruce tips, elderberries, and licorice root.

Meh: Cocoa nibs, black pepper, agave, lemon zest, butternut squash, black cardamom, and vanilla extract.

Bad: Walnuts (head killer), sour sop (tastes like parmesan), and dried ginger (1 oz was way too much).

I did an experimental batch of blonde ale with a pound of honey (good) and a small amount of rose water that showed some promise. I didn't use enough rose water to really taste it, but I think it would have been good if I had. The rose water is very bitter so I think it is best to use it on a beer with low IBU's. My intent here was to create a beer that my wife would enjoy (doesn't like hops) but still is balanced.

Just did an orange pale ale. The zest of 4 large oranges was way too much.

Unexpectedly awesome - a half gallon of maple syrup in a brown ale. Boosted the OG to 1.078, was insanely mapley, but after 6 months it really mellowed into this weird barleywine/RIS high alcohol thing.

Terrible - peach wheat. Peaches are ACIDIC - I did not expect how tart that beer would become.

I've used, 50+ year old honey, Jaggery, Date Syrup, Date Palm mollasses, every grade of brown sugar, mascerated dates, mexican hot chocolate disks (both in the boil and as mash liquid), ginger orange marmalde, lime marmalade, candied ginger, tortilla chips, my own chili powder, whole dried and smoked chilli, I've roasted my own grain and even soaked it in simple syrup and then roasted it, I've been experimenting with priming with things like date syrup. I just did a brown ale where I mashed the grain with 2 boxes of ginger snap cookies... And I've used all the "normal" "strange" ingredients like pumpkin, spices, citrus peels, stuff like that.

I've really never had bad experiences...Nothing ever came out bad, though some were better than others. I think if you understand recipes and recipe creations you really don't have "worst experiences" you may have a recipe that needs some tweaking in future batches, but if you know how brewing ingredients work together, you are already hopefully basing you experimental ingredients around standard ingredients that compliment each other.

I mean I really didn't start playing with nontraditional ingredients, until I had a handle on make good beers with TRADITIONAL brewing ingredients first.

Also Mosher's radical brewing is a great start.

Yeah I'll definitely second the "if you know what you're doing, you can always make something decent." In the past year, I've really shifted my focus in homebrewing from the recipe to the yeast... that's where the beer is made. Take care of your beer microbiologically and you can put anything in.

My take on this is that there is a difference between true experimentation and throwing things together "willy nilly." I have noticed on here is that a lot of noobs think what they are doing is experimentation, when in reality they are just throwing a bunch of stuff against the wall and hoping it sticks.

Throwing a bunch of stuff in your fermenter and seeing what you get at the end, and ending up making an "is my beer ruined" thread is not the same thing as experimenting.

To me, in order to experiment truly, you have to have an understanding of the fundamentals. You have to know how the process works somewhat. You have to have an understanding of how different ingredients or processes affect the final product. You may even need to know, or at least understand something about beer styles, and what goes into making one beer a Porter and another a pale ale. And where your concoction will fall on the continuoum.


To me it's like cooking or even Jazz. But going back to the cooking analogy. Coming up with a balanced and tasty recipe takes some understanding of things...just like cooking...dumping a cup of salt will more than likely ruin a recipe...so if you cook, you KNOW not to do that...it's the same with brewing...you get an idea with experience and looking at recipes, brewing and playing with software how things work..what flavors work with each other, etc...

That to me is the essence of creating...I have gotten to a point where I understand what I am doing, I get how ingredients work or don't work with each other, so I am not just throwing a bunch of stuff together to see what I get.

I have an idea of what I want it to taste like, and my challenge then is to get the right combination of ingredients to match what is in my head. That's also pretty much how I come up with new food recipes as well.

Thanks for the responses so far everyone! I'm enjoying reading about these ingredients.

I believe Revvy's points are right on. I am certainly a noob however I'd like to think that my experience with other hobbies/interests (not to mention life in general) has taught me to master the basics before going outside of the box. I plan to brew many more batches using the 4 main ingredients before adding to my shopping list. Very good advice, thank you.

I love playing with sugars. I've used all of these with good results. Honeys of all varietals (eucalyptus was especially interesting), maple syrup, agave nectar, date syrup, sucanat, coconut palm sugar, jaggery, date syrup, pure cane syrup, molasses (stay away from blackstrap), piconillo, Demerara,etc etc.

Some spices have worked well for me. I liked candied Ginger and galangal. Peppercorns were nice, especially szechuan. Various citrus peels like yuzu, sweet lime, pink grapefruit, etc.

Fruit syrups have helped make good fruit beers. Pomegranate molasses, apple cider syrup are 2 of my favs.

On the bad side, I won't use herbs in secondary. I like them at the end of the boil for a quick steep, but in secondary herbs like mint or sage gave my mostly green vegetive flavors, nor the herby notes I was going for.

i approach cooking with the same technique i approach brewing, throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing it sticks

I've had good experience with oranges, tangerines, juniper berries, heather tips, lemon, banana, honey, agave.

Not really had any bad experiences with any.

I used hibiscus once. Ended up with a red-colored Wine Cooler Awful.

When I do get around to this sort of stuff, My first 'experiment' will likely be an IPA with banana.. probably fresh banana as opposed to extract...

So far, my experimentation has only been with splitting ten gallon batches into two different carboys and using a different yeast in each.. Or fermenting at different temps...

I'm mostly focusing on equipment, technique and efficiency right now... using others tried and true recipes...

just did a stout, and added cold press coffee and 8 oz of cocoa powder (mixed with just enough boiling water to liquefy) into the secondary and it came out awesome.

Kiwi was a loss.

Blueberry puree was a loss.

Honey was a win.

Chamomile was a win.

Beets was a loss (infection).

passedpawn - do you know more about the infection you saw when using the beets? was it directly related to this ingredient?

timrussell said:

passedpawn - do you know more about the infection you saw when using the beets? was it directly related to this ingredient?

Click to expand...

I probably shouldn't have listed it that way. The infection was pure negligence. I added the beet to the wort after it was cooled. No sanitizing in any way. Just stupidity, and I got nailed.

I have had a beer (homebrew) made from beets and it tasted just like beets. Not really that good. On the other hand, I think beets can be used to color a beer without adding any taste at all (i.e., Magic Hat Wacko). I guess it depends how much you use.