That Beer is Soo Weird

Craft Beer Los Angeles

What makes this beer red? More importantly, is the beer still balanced?

What is the weirdest beer ingredient? And what makes it weird? Is it scarcity? Or is it an ick factor?

Bugs, peppers and obscure fruits have been on the ingredient list of beers that I have imbibed this year and the trend towards even stranger ingredients doesn’t look likely to abate as brewers look to both stand out and chart new brewing territory.

Is there an outer limit to tossing just any old thing into the fermenter? There are a spate of Peanut Butter and Chocolate beers on shelves but do any really taste like the beloved treat. Sugary breakfast cereals have been added to some beers, but isn’t that a flavor component that is best left in childhood? Using beetles to add color to a beer may actually be less weird than a Sriracha beer (both of which I have tasted at Eagle Rock Brewery over the years).

The key to any ingredient in beer is balance. Your favorite hop and malt need the other one to really shine and the same goes for the off-kilter additives. If you add ghost peppers to the point where 90% of the populace is breathing fire like a dragon on “Game of Thrones,” then you have a problem. But if you are like Monkish Brewing and you add just the right note of pistachios to a beer then even people (OK, me) who do not like that nut, will still like the beer.

Perusing the bottled wares at your local bottle shop can uncover beers with blood oranges, vanilla and watermelon. On tap options can include cucumbers, passion fruit and curry powder. That is tame compared to beer made with candy cap mushrooms, fermenters with bacon and/or ham or even brains.

So, what are the answers to the questions? It basically comes down to what people will buy. A novelty beer may sell like hotcakes at the beginning and then get replaced by the new, new. That beer will stay a novelty while a really good beer, not matter the ingredient list will become, well, not so weird anymore.

The Beer of the Week is super simple. All you have to do is Pick Six and you will get one of the newer canned options from Port Brewing. Their 16 ounces of Czech Pilsner that will certainly be welcomed at BBQ’s and birthday parties and weddings during our long hot summer.

Your Homework is to see if you want to enter a contest. Angel City Brewery is throwing open the mash tun doors for it’s 3rd iteration of What Would You Brew?. Last year’s winner Desert Dreams had a cacophony of ingredients from sage, to honey, to orange peel. Maybe you could be the lucky one who gets a brew day and your beer on tap in DTLA (plus a kegerator filled with your creation too)!

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Sean Inman

Find more of Sean Inman's writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.

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