Beer Forum

I am a contestant on Brew Your Own Beer TV, a reality game show hosted by Justin Crossley and Jason (JP) Petros. We begin taping this weekend. On Sunday each team will have to brew an extract batch. Here are the instructions we were given today:

About Ingredients and your Sunday Challenge:
Sunday's challenge will be interesting for us all and we want to give you a little notice so you can plan for it. BYOB TV will provide you all with the exact same 5 gallon extract recipe kit for an American Amber Ale. Your challenge will be to add one non-traditional and creative ingredient. This ingredient can be ANYTHING you choose, as long as it is a consumable product. You will be judged on creativity, execution, difficulty of use, and overall drinkability once the beer has fermented out. Please carefully consider the beer you will be brewing and what ingredient you would like to wow our judges with. Again, we will be looking for something unique and outside the brewing box, but your beer will also be judged on its drinkability. Your brewing skills and creativity in this area will be put to the test to find the right balance.

Looking for suggestions as to the secret ingredient. TIA

The first thing that popped in my head was cardamom. I had a bottle of Poppaskull, a collab brew with 3f and Dogfish. It was a Belgian golden with cardamom. The cardamom was subdued, not overpowering, and it made the beer just fucking badass. I shared it with a non-beer afficianado who was simply blown away that a beer could taste like this. I would imagine a little cardamom goes a long way and you'd wanna be restrained with it should you choose to go that direction. Anyway, whatever you decide to use, good luck brotha!

HoozierDaddy wrote:The first thing that popped in my head was cardamom. I had a bottle of Poppaskull, a collab brew with 3f and Dogfish. It was a Belgian golden with cardamom. The cardamom was subdued, not overpowering, and it made the beer just fucking badass. I shared it with a non-beer afficianado who was simply blown away that a beer could taste like this. I would imagine a little cardamom goes a long way and you'd wanna be restrained with it should you choose to go that direction. Anyway, whatever you decide to use, good luck brotha!

I guess I don't know what cardamom tastes like but I like the idea. I'll run it past my teammates. Thanks!

1st Thing that came to my head was, bacon

Good luck

Eltharyon wrote:1st Thing that came to my head was, bacon

Good luck

Hmmm...

Since you guys are in a little warmer climate than us folks out on the plains, you might be able to pick a bunch of fresh spruce tips to add to the beer. If those aren't available yet, try juniper berries.

Wayne

Bugeater wrote:Since you guys are in a little warmer climate than us folks out on the plains, you might be able to pick a bunch of fresh spruce tips to add to the beer. If those aren't available yet, try juniper berries.

Wayne

Jeezus- you mean go out into nature and procure our ingredients?

Cardamom is a great idea. It's also traditionally used in turkish coffee as well as glögg, a sorta-traditional mulled wine that's been in my family for generations. By which I mean: I got the recipe from a good housekeeping magazine, and taught both my parents and grandparents how to make it. It really is tasty though, and a very unique spice.

Other things I'd consider, especially since you're in the bay area and have access to all kinds of foodstuffs:

kaffir lime leaves (for a lighter interpretation of the amber ale, I'm playing with kaffir lime leaves in my cream ale, but they could stand up to a maltier brew)
sichuan peppercorns (very different from actual peppercorns, although cracked black pepper would have its place in a lighter ale, I think)
dried mushrooms (very iffy and dangerous, the earthy umami flavors here could totally wreck a beer with the wrong hop profile, plus the chance of a fungal infection are high, but something like porcini or matsutake would be spectacular in the right beer; I'm also working on a matsutake beer, considering either a bock-style lager or an amber ale for it, or maybe an english pale as matsus are pretty earthy and piny)
caraway seeds (tough to judge how much, and this would take the beer in the complete opposite direction, but if you've ever had aquavit, you've seen the power there)

I tend toward the savory and earthy flavors myself, but I bet you could make a case for the sweeter and fruitier stuff as well. I've been meaning to try out rhubarb (pretty sour), blueberries (surprisingly balanced), and melon (probably more appropriate for a CAP or a CACA)

As a side-suggestion, go to a cafe that specializes in herbal teas (worst case, go to a mall with a Teavana) and sample. Herbal teas have all kinds of crazy shit in them.

I've had bacon beer (someone was pouring it at winter brews fest) and was unimpressed. IIRC, it was a baconated baltic porter, and the bacon only really came across as salty, which was odd in the beer. I could see something with a smokiness in the amber ale, but I think i'd rather bring that across with just something like a tiny bit of peated malt or a bigger amount of rauchmalt in the steep or some liquid smoke in the secondary than actual bacon. Bacon's only good by itself and in bourbon.

Can you tell that I'm totally jealous that you're on the show? I didn't even try to try out because the first taping was SUPPOSED to be on the weekend I was heading up to Yosemite. Big storm- I had a blast in Yosemite, but the first taping was cancelled. Of course, with tons of people showing up for the casting call, I'd probably not make the cut anyway. Give them hell, beerpal. And fix the dang memory leak in your app too.