The strangest thing I've ever put in a recipe is...

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Lodovico

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2009
Messages
925
Reaction score
22
Location
PA
spruce tips. Ok, not that strange but I needed to start my own thread. Please don't bother telling me this has been discussed before because there are several hundred new users every week.

What's the strangest ingredient you've used and how did it come out?
 
Probably Saffron for the DFH Midas Touch clone. It didn't seem to do anything but I added it anyways. Other than that, there is nothing out of the ordinary I add to many beers. Honey is probably the next in line and that is not strange at all.
 
Probably Saffron for the DFH Midas Touch clone. It didn't seem to do anything but I added it anyways. Other than that, there is nothing out of the ordinary I add to many beers. Honey is probably the next in line and that is not strange at all.

How did the Midas Touch Clone come out overall?
 
I made a light summer ale called "Cat Chase Dog", after the epic doggie biscuit thread here inspired me to use the spent grains to make doggie biscuits. The special ingredient: Catnip.

Yes, really.

It complemented the Fuggle hops very nicely by rounding out the headiness with a slightly grassy, marjoram-like flavor.

One fist-full of ground catnip at flame out.

I bet you didn't know that catnip is in the same family (cannabacea) as both Hops AND Marijuana.
 
How did the Midas Touch Clone come out overall?

It was good once it mellowed. Between the high ABV and the addition of white muscat grape juice, it had some pretty extreme flavors to start out with. It's been almost a year since I've brewed it and I still have some set aside to drink.

I think the catnip is a bad idea for me, since my cats already are way too interested in my brewing haha
 
Heh, mine too... Until one day I picked him up to let him get a good whiff of a bubbling airlock. He acted like I shot a flamethrower in his face. Now, whenever I carry a carboy up from the basement, he runs and hides.
 
I've added what some might consider "strange" things in my beer, as I've done a few non-hop beers bittered with Yarrow, mugwort and wormwood. Turned out quite interesting, although I will probably drop the wormwood in the future, that stuff is crazy bitter.

Although, because it is bugging me (Parents are Horticulturists), Catnip is actually in the mint family (Lamiacae) not the Cannabaceae family, which only contains MJ, hops, and hackberry, a very small family. Don't mean to be nerdy but it bugs me.

Edit: Damn, I was beaten to it, so it seems, by Teacher.
 
Wow. I think it's going to be pretty hard to beat Catnip in my book. That's "interesting." :)
 
I did an herbed blonde with lemongrass, spearmint, and chamomile. Chamomile isn't that weird, but the first two are.
 
I like to use a lot of ingredients that most people wouldn't associate with beer. I think one of my favorite recipes is ChocoCoco Porter which uses alot of chocolate malt and the addition of toasted coconut to the secondary. It comes out really nice. You almost get notes of vanilla and oak from toasting the coconut. I know that using coconut isn't that strange but it's one of my favorite recipes using adjuncts that aren't normally used in the brewing process.
 
along these lines I was wondering if anyone has ever used wine in their recipe. I know of breweries and some home brewers who put their beer in used wine barrels, but I've been thinking about adding wine directly to the beer - either in primary or secondary.
 
Skittles? Wow...

I have a brown that's bulk aging right now. I had an OG of 1.071 and used 1.5 lbs of toasted hazelnuts in the mash, then another 1 lb in the boil for 10 min. That was my first stuck mash, even with 1 lb of rice hulls. The fermenter looked like the Exxon Valdeze cleanup, but I racked under the slick to avoid as much oil as possible, and included a pound of oats. Hopefully I'll be able to get some head on this beer. The hazelnuts are there, but subtle. I think next time I'd put all the nuts in the boil to hopefully bring them out more.

I need to name this beer, I'm thinking Big Brown Nuts so I can ask people if they'd like to taste my...
 
anyone every use valerian? i've read about it better never have given it a go... interested tho... be cool to have a "night-cap"
 
I made a gruit...yarrow, mugwort, marsh rosemary, bog myrtle.

It tasted...different. Some people said it tasted like soap. I thought it came out kind of sour. Mild infection? Maybe. Or maybe it was the weird herbs...we'll never know...LOL.
 
along these lines I was wondering if anyone has ever used wine in their recipe. I know of breweries and some home brewers who put their beer in used wine barrels, but I've been thinking about adding wine directly to the beer - either in primary or secondary.

Never added wine itself, but last year I made a barley-wine that I added oak chips that had first been used in the primary of a Cabernet that I made. It was very nice, but I don't make (or drink) barley-wine very often, so I'm not sure what to attribute to the recipe and what to the Cabernet oak chips. The oak flavor was really subdued, not like some oaked beers that need aging. It also had a nice red tint to it. I'd like to try it with something I'm more familiar with next time.

A fellow home brewer friend is currently "fat washing" a smoked porter. Somehow infusing it with bacon. That's that's strangest one I've heard of recently.
 
along these lines I was wondering if anyone has ever used wine in their recipe. I know of breweries and some home brewers who put their beer in used wine barrels, but I've been thinking about adding wine directly to the beer - either in primary or secondary.

I have a belgian dark strong that I am planning where I take 2 gallons off in 1 gallon jugs, soak American oak cubes in port, add both cubes and port to the first jug. In the second I want to add some Brett. Then blend them all back in the end. Make a kinda 3 Philosophers knockoff.
 

My centennial cream ale. I was 1/2 # short of flaked maize so subbed tortilla chips in for it. I just broke them up and tossed them in the mash tun with the flaked maize.

Blame it on having just read Radical Brewing, and having the "Iron Brewer" episode on basic brewing when I realized I was short of maize.

I looked over at the bag of tortilla chips sitting there in front of me, and thought "Hey, it's cooked corn mush....it might work."


A bunch of folks said "blah blah blah, it wouldn't work, you wouldn't get any head because of the oils, yadda yadda yadda."

And it worked out perfectly. I've found that the grain will absorb a lot of oils if you are throwing stuff like that or even chocolate directly in the mash tun.

It tasted great. I shared it informally with some bjcp judges and they were blown away. It had a great flavor, and plenty of head.

I may try in again using a full pound rather than mixing it with maize. But I think to used that much I'd really need to attempt a cereal mash.
 
I haven't really used any weird ingredients, but I have captured and used wild yeast from my yard. It had a very distinct flavor (mildly sour and funky, very fruity) and was worth doing again. Maybe next spring...

Other than that I have used heather tips, orange zest, bitter orange, various spices and fruits, etc (kiwis might count as out of the ordinary???). Pretty average stuff.
 
Wow, I feel like I have yet to try anything really weird. I used 1# of Blackstrap molasses in a Russian Imperial Stout. Was shooting for an OG of 1.100!! but only ended up at 1.092.

Maybe I'll make up some test batches of beer. :think:
 
Not all that strange but I've used toasted wild rice in the mash of an ESB. Planning a brown ale with Nutella, toasted Hazlenuts and Count Chocula cereal in the mash.
 
I want to know what kind of base beer you made for this.

Did the skittle brew when I was still doing a lot of extracts before I went AG. Pretty sure the base recipe was MidwestSupplies Big Ben Pale Ale. Tossed in about a pound of them at flameout. Me and the group of guys I brew with do a super unconventional beer once every year. There were some strange ones that others have tried too. One guy did dippin dots, another added a can of coke one year. The strangest was sour gummy worms.
 
Accidently addded a slight hint of tomato and onions to my friends first try at a vanilla bean porter.

Funny thing was it came out good and had a slight taste of Bush's Baked beans, very drinkable. We've been trying to reproduce it ever since.
 
I've got a potion steeping right now of juniper berries and lemon peels (in vodka). I'm going to add it at bottling to a basic pale ale.
 
Back
Top