How to experiment with flavors without brewing

[Sublime8365]

I've been brewing for about a year now and want to start experimenting with ingredients like fruit, spice, etc. I've done a few blue moon clones and a pumpkin beer but other than that, haven't experimented with these things much. I'd prefer not to put all the time, money, and effort into making an entire batch (or even a half batch) just to make a crappy beer. Have any of you experimented with things before actually brewing a batch of them? Like if I wanted to brew a banana ale, should I just try pureeing a little bit of banana and adding it to the style of beer that I plan on brewing and seeing how it tastes?

 

[AUEnder]

Get some gallon or half gallon jugs and experiment away. You won't know how the yeast reacts with certain additives by just adding flavor to beer. With half gallon growlers you can have 10 different experiments off one 5 gallon batch.

 

[abracadabra]

Here are a few different containers you can get and try for "FREE" other than buying Jugs from the Brew it yourself stores. Any number of PET jugs from the grocery store containing apple cider or juce or other fruit juices or look carefully and you can find glass jugs. Then all you'd need is rubber stoppers and airlocks. I've also recently seen 1/2 gallon jugs of beer at Tower package store in Atlanta from a number of different Microbrew houses. If you want to go smaller than gallon or 1/2 gallon the Mississippi Mud beer Jugs would make excellent small carboys and are brown so they protect against damage from light.

I like free or at least no additional cost items as this hobby can get expensive.