Belgian Specialty Ale unique ingredients

Has anyone tried their hand at one of these?

I know the style takes on a huge variety of different beers and unique ingredients, and I am curious to see what my fellow home brewers have attempted to throw into a batch of this style beer.

So, what unique, strange, or unusual ingredient have you thrown into your beer?
(Successful or not, I still wanna hear them!)

 

Not that unique, but I like using coriander in my golden strongs and saisons. It seems to meld well with the fruity character of the yeast.

 

I just put some Old Bay seasoning in a saison this weekend, i thought it could be good with the spicy/earthiness. You could really smell the OB, but not taste it very well in the sample. I'll let you know how it turns out after fermentation's done.

 

Im not too familiar with Old Bay, is that a seasoning used in seafood?

Sounds interesting

 

I've got a beer in my head that would be perfect with fermented sausages that would fit it the Belgian Specialty category. Uses coriander, green peppercorn, fennel seed, cumin, and grains of paradise. The first try was Vienna base, some caramunich, EKG, and 3725. The second try was Golden Promise, a bit of wheat, some munich, Saphir, and 3725. I think I may try mostly munich, some rye, cararye, and 3711 next time. Hops are pretty much just there to bitter.

 

I'm doing a saison with a gallon of apple cider and 5 oranges (peeled, pith removed but rind and pieces thrown into primary)

Cold crashing now but samples taste great.

 

Yep, it's primarily used for boiling crab and shrimp, but anyone in the Chesapeake region will tell you it goes with lots of stuff. It includes black and red pepper, paprika, and celery salt. I got the idea from a Gose that Flying Dog did with Old bay in it. We'll see how it comes out.

 

How did these turn out? Any info on the aroma/flavor of the final product?

 

This is around what I came up with, except Im calling mine an apple tripel, basically a tripel recipe with a bit of wheat and sub some sugar for apple juice.

Are you adding the cider to primary as well? I have been trying to figure out whether or not you need to boil apple juice or apple cider before you toss it in the fermenter. I have the same question about the oranges, any sanitation of those before they went in?

 

Though I haven't gotten around to tasting a sample yet, I have one going with Rye, Black Pepper, and Wyeast Trappist Blend which includes Brett.

 

Rye and black pepper together, should be real spicy. Let me know how it turns out!

 

Just tasted by hydrometer sample yesterday from my tripel with apple juice and cinnamon and it tasted great! Will be brewing this again!

 

I'm fermenting an apple tripel right now too. I'm going to add about 1 can of frozen concentrate per gallon once the initial fermentation slows. Almost any store-bought juice should be fine to add straight to primary; they're almost all pasteurized. Orange peels I would subject to 160+ temps at some point. The internal portion of the orange should be as sanitary as the process used to extract it.