Craziest Experimental Beer Recipe

[JusticeBrewers]

So assuming that you are anything like me, Home brewing is all about experimenting with all kinds of new ingredients (some crazier than others) and trying to make something new and fun. Sometimes it fails and sometimes it works out.

I wanna hear about your CRAZIEST recipe ideas. If you've tried making them, how did it turn out?

 

[BargainFittings]

Very early on I was all over the place. I brewed a beer with about 80% wheat bread and 20% 6 row malt and lots of rice hulls.

It converted fine and was pretty horrible. The worst sort of "bready" flavors you can imagine.

 

[catdaddy66]

I try to stick to style as much as I can in order to 'know' the qualities of the styles. This should allow me to understand what 'crazy' actually is.

My craziest brewing involves switching yeast or hops, almost never to I appreciably change the grist other than make it simpler.

I am a 'boring' brewer.

 

[bkboiler]

one of my very first brews i decided i wanted to brew a coffee IPA stout...turned out freakin amazing actually...i kinda salvaged the recipe...i didnt really write things down then, but tried to remember it months later. just a basic american stout with loads of willamette hops and homeroasted costa rican...mmmm...

 

[Quadrupled]

Few years ago BeerBaron made Ovaltine beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=294176

 

[Murphys_Law]

I have about 2 gallons of a Pumpernickel Stout in a fermenter now. I'm using MO as my base, some rye and flaked rye, a small amount of crystal rye and roasted barley, a small amount of Willamette hops, and WLP007 yeast.

The "crazy" part, I guess: 4 slices of toasted pumpernickel bread was toasted, cubed, and added to the full mash! I am going to bottle this weekend and have no idea what it tastes like now! It sure did smell good though!

 

[jerbrew]

Few years ago BeerBaron made Ovaltine beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=294176

That sentence did not prepare me for that thread. Epic.

 

[RTL]

I did a Mexican black lager with lime, cilantro, and a Carolina reaper (one gallon batch). Unfortunately the lime and cilantro don't come through, since it tastes like I would imagine drinking magma would be like. I will definitely be revisiting this and trying habaneros.

 

[Sourz4life]

I went pretty extreme at first, now I still do a bit but its more on things like fruit choices and such, using exotic fruit and alternative yeast. But I made a smoked maple bacon ale. I wanted the bacon flavor to be directly from bacon but not have any risk of the slickness from the fat. So what I did was cured a 6 pound slab of pork belly(first time wet curing). After that I smoked the pork belly for about 6 hours using hickory wood that I had soaked in maple sap. Trimmed all the flat off and some nice thick slabs of bacon and let them sit in some grain alcohol for about 1 and 1/2 weeks. Then began the long process of freezing the fat out and filtering it. Took well over 10 times to refreeze/filter continuously, but eventually I got it. The flavor was really amazing. I threw it in the keg and it was super tasty for the first 3 weeks, after that the flavor started to fade away until about 2 weeks later and it was completely gone. So all and all it worked out well, but its a flavor that doesn't last long.

 

[benco]

A couple of years ago there was a thread started by someone who was making a turkey beer using the whole carcass. I don't know how it turned out. I'm thinking nasty.

 

[z-bob]

I just bottled a ginger beer last weekend. It's pretty bad, although I should wait until it's carbonated to really pass judgement. It's just a simple pale ale with no hops, flavored with ginger and a little citrus. I used lemon juice to adjust the pH, I added what I thought was a lot of ginger, and a shredded tangerine. There's almost no ginger taste or smell at all (there is just a little heat). The cooked tangerine comes through a little, but not in a good way.

I'll still drink it.