There are plenty of beers with jalapeno-type peppers. Cave Creek Chili Beer goes back at least 17 years. Here is an early approval, and a recent one. But we think beers with peppercorn-type peppers are less common. Here are two. Allagash is practically a meal because it’s made with grain, sweet potatoes and black pepper. Lip Stinger is Ale Fermented with Peppercorn.
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Flying Dog has their “Good Beer, No Sh*t” Road Dog Porter as chronicled here. The Dog is not to be outdone by the Weasel. Whereas Road Dog, apparently, has no sh*t whatsoever, this ingredient is the centerpiece of Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch. It is made with weasel excrement. Literally. The label explains that:
This imperial Oatmeal stout is brewed with one of the world’s most expensive coffees, made from droppings of weasel-like civet cats. The fussy Southeast Asian animals only eat the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system help to break down the bean. Workers collect the bean-containing droppings for Civet or Weasel Coffee. The exceedingly rare Civet Coffee has a strong, distinctive taste and an even stronger aroma.
Lest you be scared away by the “droppings,” here is at least one connoisseur who can vouch for it.
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Is it safe to assume wine is made from grapes? Not really. Is it safe to assume wine is made from fruit? Apparently not, as indicated by River Myst’s onion wine. It is fermented from 55% onions, 27% potatoes, and 18% raisins. Jailhouse is another example of a wine with very little “fruit” and a little bit of raisin. It is 90% honey, 9% orange, 1% raisin, and spices.
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Beer. With. Vegetables. Popcorn. Fruit. Spices. Raisins. Honey. And Malted Milk Balls. Wow. Eccentric indeed. If anyone (excluding this joker) drank a whole bottle and lived to tell about it, please confess below.
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TTB is not likely to allow anything labeled as “energy beer” anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean there is any shortage of beer tinged with caffeine. Notwithstanding the demise of Sparks and Tilt, there is a big upsurge in beers with added caffeine, guarana, tea, yerba mate — and coffee. Today, coffee. Pipeline Porter is made with 100% Hawaiian Kona Coffee according to the label. Joe is brewed with coffee, by Philadelphia Brewing Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Yeti is stout aged on oak chips with coffee added. The front label pretty much suggests serving it with breakfast. None of these labels mention energy, stimulants, caffeine, or the amount of caffeine, so the consumer is left to guess. My grandpa Joe never dreamed of beer mixed with coffee or any other alcohol beverage that would perk him up.
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In recent days a few industry veterans expressed concern about a new distilled spirits specialty with the flavor of bubble gum. Here are two. The newer one is Three Olives Bubble. The label and website don’t mention gum, but this blog confirms that it tastes like Bazooka, and the packaging certainly reminds me of bubble gum. The other one is Bubble Gum Liqueur, bottled by M.S. Walker of Somerville, Massachusetts. This one does not eschew the use of the word “gum,” and refers to Bubble Gum at least half a dozen times. It strikes us as reasonable to evaluate whether gum and candy are so irresistible to children that they are inappropriate on alcohol beverage labels or as main flavors. But in the next post we will show that these two products are not so unusual. There are a great many alcohol beverage products referring to candy — even without counting the hundreds or thousands of chocolate products.
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