strange and wonderful ingredients

[RobbyBeer]

I've been contemplating playing with some marshmallow root or the extract to use in a beer.. Most likely a porter.
Has anyone ever used this old medicinal herb, or heard of anyone else using it?
The flavor is not what you'd think, given the name.. But it does have some very interesting characters that may be great in beer.

Any other strange and wonderful ingredients? Feel free to mention them here.

 

[frazier]

If you google 'gruit', you will get lots of suggestions based on what brewers used prior to the emergence of hops as a bittering agent.

I recently used heather tips (flowers and buds) in a Scottish ale. It came out nice, but I need more evaluation before deciding whether my next batch will double the amount (to 4 oz.), or drop it altogether.

If you browse the stout and porter recipes here, you will find mention of things like coffee, licorice roote, star anise, molasses, chile, cocoa, etc. etc. etc. You could also google "goat scrotum porter" for more discussion.

Cheers!

 

[spenghali]

+1 on researching some Gruit Ales, I recently made this recipe:

http://www.gruitale.com/rec_mugwort_stout.htm

The rest of that webpage has a bit of history behind them and other recipes.