Crazy styles

[scotchpine]

Great thread! Right now I'm fermenting my Aloha Pale Ale. Chico style pale ale, 1272 yeast, with Toasted macadamia nuts at 30 min and 20 oz of drained pineapple in whirlpool through cooling. Last summer I did a Habanaro Saison, and some thought that crazy but many were intrigued and wanted more. It was great with grilled pork chops. Next up is a dry hopped, chocolate honey rye saison. Bel pils base,16% rye, .5lb flaked rye, 8% Caramunich II, .3 oz Eng choc, 1lb local honey in ferm, and 3711 yeast. Dry hop with an oz each of Amarillo and Palisades. Obviously not to style.

You need some coconut in that Aloha Pale Ale!

I've thought about coconut but have not done it yet. The pineapple is rather subtle as well as the macadamia nut and it's nicely balanced as it is. So, I'm a little gun shy to try that. I like Kona's Coco Loco Brown, but I have to blend it with a porter or something similar cause the coconut is just too overpowering for me. I don't want to have to up the macadamia nuts per batch cause they are like $20 a pound. I use 8oz in 5gal batch. Maybe just replace the macadamia nuts with coconut on a test batch. I would probably toast it a little too.

[AbeSoto]

So, I've started to narrow this down after some thinking and here's where I'm at: everybody in the world--not that it's a bad style, it's one of my favorites--has had a pumpkin beer of some kind. But, does anyone know of a butternut squash beer? It could be a wonderful addition to the pumpkin-saturated fall beer market. Forgive me for listing this prospective malt bill in such giant quantities, but here's something about what I'm thinking:

2-row: 100 lbs.
Pilsen: 25 lbs.
Crystal 77: 15 lbs.
Special B: 15
Wyermann Munich: 5
Flaked barley: 5
Chocolate malt: 5

Now, here's my hop bill. I recently had the wonderful opportunity to harvest fresh hops from a local farm, so I'm trying to use those as much as possible.

60 min: 2lbs fresh, wet nugget
30 min: 13 oz pelletized East Kent Golding
15 min: 2lbs fresh, wet nugget

So, as you can see, this beer could go in several directions from this point: Belgian farmhouse brown or English nut brown? I was considering putting the fresh, chopped meat of the squash into the mash, extracting the nice, creamy sugar in that way and then adding some cinnamon and, after having toasted them, the seeds from the squash at about 30 min into the boil. I also still have a Buffalo Trace barrel sitting empty in my backyard, but would that make it too intense? ALSO (I know I'm posting a huge post, sorry), what if I removed the Special B and chocolate malt and upped the pilsen, then used a Saison yeast?

Again, sorry this is so giant. Thanks for any help!

[snowcapt]

Great thread! Right now I'm fermenting my Aloha Pale Ale. Chico style pale ale, 1272 yeast, with Toasted macadamia nuts at 30 min and 20 oz of drained pineapple in whirlpool through cooling. Last summer I did a Habanaro Saison, and some thought that crazy but many were intrigued and wanted more. It was great with grilled pork chops. Next up is a dry hopped, chocolate honey rye saison. Bel pils base,16% rye, .5lb flaked rye, 8% Caramunich II, .3 oz Eng choc, 1lb local honey in ferm, and 3711 yeast. Dry hop with an oz each of Amarillo and Palisades. Obviously not to style.

You need some coconut in that Aloha Pale Ale!

Or spam. Just sayin...

[spiderwrangler]

Again, sorry this is so giant. Thanks for any help!

I ignored your monster grain bill. Wet hops are 'wasted' except as a late addition, and not sure how much sugar or flavor you will get from raw chunks of squash....

[edisonst]

I did a split batch of Smoked Brown Saison and Smoked English Strong Ale. The smoked brown saison half has kick some ass so far. I am saving the strong ale until the winter. I usually do split batches with different yeasts...you can come up with some wierd stuff when you cant figure out what the other yeast should be.