whats the craziest thing you've ever looked at and said "yeah, I could ferment that"?

[potzertommy]

I have been thinking about going half malted barley (so I can get the proper enzymes) half Lucky Charms cereal for a while. It would probably be horrible, but so are those "turkey" and "mashed potatos and gravy" Jones Sodas they sell around the holidays, and people drink those just to say they did

I was also thinking about onions for a while, but i guess someone beat me to that.

plantains?

starfruit?

orange juice?

So, whats the craziest think you've ever looked at and said "yeah, i could ferment that"? It really seems that, in the world of alcohol, everything has been done, so bonus points if you come up with something that there is no evidence has been done before. Also, if youve actually tried it, i would love to hear what your results were.

 

[Brett0424]

If it can be fermented it has. Traditional xingu is fermented spit. Chickens have been fermented, tobacco for cigars is fermented. I've had jalapeno wine. I'm sticking to my wort sugars and fruit juices. I'd like to see where this goes though.

 

[Arneba28]

There is a japanese or korean wine. They take baby mice fetuses and put them in a jug, add water and let it sit in the sun for a few months. There is a vietnamese drink that ferments venemous snakes.

 

[potzertommy]

If it can be fermented it has. Traditional xingu is fermented spit. Chickens have been fermented, tobacco for cigars is fermented. I've had jalapeno wine. I'm sticking to my wort sugars and fruit juices. I'd like to see where this goes though.

How is jalepeno wine?

 

[Brewmando]

I keep eyeing the Maple and Brown Sugar Malt-O-Meal..... HHMMM.... I've got extra grains, yeast, hops and all. Luckily I don't wish to make a BMC beer or the instant grits would be in peril.

 

[potzertommy]

I keep eyeing the Maple and Brown Sugar Malt-O-Meal..... HHMMM.... I've got extra grains, yeast, hops and all. Luckily I don't wish to make a BMC beer or the instant grits would be in peril.

What does BMC stand for?

 

[Evan!]

What does BMC stand for?

Bowel Movement Conversion. It's essentially converting the starches in your, you know, BM, into fermentable wort.

oh, um, I mean, "Bud, Miller, Coors". It's easier than typing out "mass-produced light american lager".

 

[Vatechtigger]

How is jalepeno wine?

Ive had this at various wine making conventions I have been to. It is unique, hot, alcoholic and sweet (had some residual sugar) def not something I would drink with dinner, although better than the various chili beers I have tried.

 

[raceskier]

This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ube is going in my next beer.

I had the opportunity to try some Ube ice cream, and the first thing that hit me was the rich, dare I say 'malty' flavor. Very intriguing. I think I'm going to try the pumpkin approach of baking the yam, then mashing (squishing) it and adding it to a mash of 2-row and probably some crystal. Not sure if I'm going to try and spice it or not.

I wonder if my beer wil come out purple?

Purple Haze anyone?

 

[rabidgerbil]

I tried doing a beer with beets, and the color survived the light boiling that I gave my starter, but the aggressive full boil of the wort broke down what ever was causing the color.

 

[Germey]

One of these days, I still plan to try adding some dates to a Nut Brown recipe for a Date Nut Porter. I love dates and think there is half a chance it will be good. Alas, I'm not keeping up with my regular brewing lately, so experiments are not moving up the list.

 

[bwitt]

I was eating an ice cream sandwich last night and wondered how a nice light lager or ale would taste with an ice cream sandwich thrown in the primary.

Ive done Satsuma Wine and pear wine. Both came out nice.

According to my wine recipe books, there are recipe's for just about every fruit and vegetable you can imagine. There was even one for celery.

Anything with any kind of sugar in it can be fermented.

 

[dzlater]

Tak a boost is a local drink made in Riverside NJ. It's a blend of fruit syrups and caffeine it's sold in a concintrate , you mix with water to drink it. MOst people when they first try it say it tastes like flat cola.I have been thinking of trying brewing with it or doing a straight up ferment with it for a while. I think it might have too many preservatives in it though.
http://www.takaboost.com/home.html

 

[Professor Frink]

Tak a boost is a local drink made in Riverside NJ. It's a blend of fruit syrups and caffeine it's sold in a concintrate , you mix with water to drink it. MOst people when they first try it say it tastes like flat cola.I have been thinking of trying brewing with it or doing a straight up ferment with it for a while. I think it might have too many preservatives in it though.
http://www.takaboost.com/home.html

I drank Boost all the time growing up in South Jersey, I'm definitely curious how that would turn out. The sodium benzoate looks like the only potential problem.

 

[Revvy]

I've been eyeing cans of redbull lately.....

But that's gotta be packed with chemicals that would kill yeast...

or maybe not... *evil grin*

Ingredients: [Edit]
Carbonated water, sucrose, glucose, sodium citrate, taurine, glucuronolactone, caffeine, inositol, niacin, D-pantothenol, pyridoxine HCL, vitamin B12, artificial flavours, colors

wtf???

 

[BakerStreetBeers]

One of these days, I still plan to try adding some dates to a Nut Brown recipe for a Date Nut Porter. I love dates and think there is half a chance it will be good. Alas, I'm not keeping up with my regular brewing lately, so experiments are not moving up the list.

Maybe call it Nutty Date Porter and try to sell it as the official beer of match.com.

Not as extreme as some of the responses, but my current oddball thoughts center around Kombucha. It's a tea-based beverage, widely lauded as a miracle health drink, that is cultured with an organism that is (I'm not going to get this right) kind of like a yeast, kind of like a bacteria -- might be a symbiotic kind of thing like a lichen. It comes out sour/tangy and fizzy AND with a very very small (0.05%) alcohol level. I love the stuff and have been wondering how it might be melded with beer brewing.

 

[Revvy]

Maybe call it Nutty Date Porter and try to sell it as the official beer of match.com.

Not as extreme as some of the responses, but my current oddball thoughts center around Kombucha. It's a tea-based beverage, widely lauded as a miracle health drink, that is cultured with an organism that is (I'm not going to get this right) kind of like a yeast, kind of like a bacteria -- might be a symbiotic kind of thing like a lichen. It comes out sour/tangy and fizzy AND with a very very small (0.05%) alcohol level. I love the stuff and have been wondering how it might be melded with beer brewing.

Years ago I tried to use a couple Kombucha "mushrooms" as drum heads for an experimental hand drum. They feel like rawhide when they're dry...It didn't really work to well though.

 

[landhoney]

I've read that the best calvados( apple brandy ) was formerly, or may still be( I should do a search, sorry) made from semi-rotten apples that have fallen to the ground. I guess in the same way noble rot(or botrytis) breaks the skin of the grape and allows water to evaporate and thus concentrate flavors and increase sugar like raisins, the rotting apples have a more intense apple flavor. Anyway, when I was working in MD I was thinking of trying this, then my co-worker said that deer eat them, obviously, and some have Chronic Wasting Disease, while its supposed to not be transferable to humans(yet maybe), I decided not to take the chance. Fermenting rotting fruit is pretty weird though, not mice fetus weird, but weird all the same.

 

[landhoney]

Maybe call it Nutty Date Porter and try to sell it as the official beer of match.com.

Not as extreme as some of the responses, but my current oddball thoughts center around Kombucha. It's a tea-based beverage, widely lauded as a miracle health drink, that is cultured with an organism that is (I'm not going to get this right) kind of like a yeast, kind of like a bacteria -- might be a symbiotic kind of thing like a lichen. It comes out sour/tangy and fizzy AND with a very very small (0.05%) alcohol level. I love the stuff and have been wondering how it might be melded with beer brewing.

Here you go: http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/search/label/Kombucha

 

[BakerStreetBeers]

Here you go: http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/search/label/Kombucha

There's someone on this board who has a reputation for being into sour beers . . . oh wait, that's you! Fascinating link. I didn't have any illusions that I was the first one to think of this, but I certainly wouldn't have expected that it was being experimented with as a techinque to replicate something as ancient and esoteric as Flanders Red.

BTW, I recently saw that a new local beer joint has the Duchess of Burgundy on tap. I've never had a Flanders Red and she's my primary (though not only) motivation to head over there ASAP.

 

[BakerStreetBeers]

Years ago I tried to use a couple Kombucha "mushrooms" as drum heads for an experimental hand drum. They feel like rawhide when they're dry...It didn't really work to well though.

Experimental is the right word for it. I've never seen one dried, but having seen them wet, I'm sure rawhide is accurate. I have a music-producer buddy who might be interested in sampling that unique kombucha mushroom drum sound.

 

[markg954]

anyone every ferment coconut juice or fresh blood?

 

[markg954]

i've drank some mead that tasted like blood

 

[User_05_28_08]

orange juice?

I have an orange melomel in secondary that is the direct result of this type of thinking.

I was sitting in my living room, watching TV, and thought, what would happen if I made a mead, but replaced all of the water in the fermenter with orange juice?

So I ran to the store, bought a gallon of orange juice and orange blossom honey.

I pasteurized the orange juice at 170 deg F, then cooled it, mixed in the honey, and put it in a Carlo Rossi jug, and attached an airlock...

The next day, when I checked on it, I slapped my forehead... I added the honey like I was making a traditional mead, not taking into account the fermentable sugar in the orange juice... my OG was higher than my hydrometer can read (higher than 1.160)... I had to promptly rig up an improve blow-off hose.

The melomel is now in secondary, and all of the sample tastings I have tried have been promising... I am thinking that this is probably something I will repeat.

 

[Short Drive]

people eat them...
Could you ferment them?

 

[User_05_28_08]

people eat them...
Could you ferment them?

You win, Dave.

 

[Brett0424]

How is jalepeno wine?

Good for cooking, not for drinking.

 

[Brett0424]

I tried doing a beer with beets, and the color survived the light boiling that I gave my starter, but the aggressive full boil of the wort broke down what ever was causing the color.

That's dissapointing I would love to do a purple beet beer. My wife is Ukrainian and every holiday is filled with purple food...I think I'll try it anyway and see how it turns out. Did you have any beet flavor at all and how did you go about it?

 

[EvilTOJ]

I can't believe I'm about to type these words but....

What about adding beet juice to secondary?

 

[Loweface]

I've a garlic and chilie wine on the go at the moment I plan on using for marinading chicken next year... (see the recipe in the wine discussion)

 

[beerme70]

I have a friend that was looking around his kitchen and found an old jar of blackberry preserves. Hmm... Found some bread yeast. Hmmmmmm........ Boiled some water, added preserves. Cooled, added yeast....and viola, nasty blackberry something with alcohol in it.

 

[Freezeblade]

I've been planning a Prickly-Pear wine for a while now, I'm waiting for the hot summer to arrive here in San Diego and the fruit to ripen, but should be very interesting.

 

[RadicalEd]

I actually have some orange wine ready for bottling... Just OJ and some concentrate. None of this honey nonsense .

But really, even though it's a very established beverage with centuries of history, sake is still a pretty messed up concoction. I mean, seriously, you culture a fungus on your rice. Delicious, though.

 

[dzlater]

I have a friend that was looking around his kitchen and found an old jar of blackberry preserves. Hmm... Found some bread yeast. Hmmmmmm........ Boiled some water, added preserves. Cooled, added yeast....and viola, nasty blackberry something with alcohol in it.

I remeber when I was about 10. I tried to ferment a can of peaches with bakers yeast in a jar , that I hid under my bed. Didn't ferment but it was quite the mold farm.

 

[Yooper]

Tomatoes ferment into a nice wine- if you're patient. At first it's kind of gaggy. Beet wine is great. I love rhubarb wine- that's my alltime favorite, I think.

So, nothing too "crazy" but maybe unusual. Dandelions, bananas, oranges, lemons, lilacs, grapefruits, blackberries, cherries, tomatoes, chokecherries, beets, mangoes, pineapples, etc. all make wonderful wine. Cranberry sauce is on my list- I have the cranberry sauce, I just have to devote the time to it. Some wines not to repeat (or even make after trying them): cabbage wine, onion wine, and that tomato wine I mentioned earlier.

 

[potzertommy]

Has anyone tried making banana wine. I love bananas and banana flavored things... I'm surprised ive never stumbled upon this

 

[Yooper]

Has anyone tried making banana wine. I love bananas and banana flavored things... I'm surprised ive never stumbled upon this

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=33636

 

[Seawolf]

In Japan, my buddies and I drank lots of Habu Sake. A fermented Habu Viper in a bottle of Sake. Very venomous, and very fun!!

 

[k1v1116]

Ive thought about it from a chemistry / biology stand point and I think it would work, blood wine. take a volume of blood from whatever nonpoisonous / non-contaminated source and put it through a centrifuge to remove the proteins and blood cells then siphon off the serum and ferment that. blood serum I think is mostly sugar water with other nutrients it should ferment great once the immune system components are removed / killed. you might save the solids to add back after the fermentation is finished for a nice red-brown color.

 

[DiscoFetus]

During a drunken brewing session this question was posed and in excitement I said..."man, we should ferment f-in grape juice!" My friend looked at me and said. You're drunk, and stupid. My response..."ooohhh yeeaahh."