Fermentation Friday: Crazy Concoctions

CNYBrew is hosting this months Fermentation Friday.

"What is the craziest concoction you ever came up with, on the fly or prepped, to brew with."

I'll take the medley approach to this one. Mostly its about things gone wrong.

The barley wine that blew the fermentation lid off was fun :-) Can you say vigorous fermentation? I still have the mark on the basement ceiling from that one. My son often refers to it. "Dad, that's from your beer isn't it?" He says knowingly. [accidental]

Ah yes, my second brew, how do you crack these steeping grains again? Nice unexpected little treat. A rolling pin and 30 minutes later I'm wishing I had it done at the local homebrew store. [improvising]

Third batch since my hiatus from brewing ended. Didn't quite get back in the saddle. Malt...check, hops...check, yeast...check, steeping grains...check and commence the boil. Ok, the water is heated up for the steeping grains. Uh oh I don't have anything to steep them in. What could I use? Panty hose! BTW this is the first time I told anybody. Don't worry they were sterilized with boiling water ;-) The beer tasted fine. [improvising]

Then there was this time when I created a kitchen sink beer. What would it be like to just throw stuff in a pot? Several year old can of pre hopped dry stout malt, some coffee beans, fresh espresso, molases, dry malt extract, liquid malt extract, mismash of left over hops pellets. Franken porter....it lives! Well I guess it does. I mean it is still sitting in a keg in my basement and well just never really fermented out. I'm kind of scared to check it again. I often have dreams of saving it. Lightening, electrodes, Egor, maniacal laughter and local villagers with pitchforks... Anyway, there's some high gravity yeast with its name on it. [on the fly, gone wrong]

You know, now that I think of it, there's a little craziness in every beer I brew. I usually just grab the ingredients I have. Thumb through or click through recipes, refer to BJCP and kinda wing it. Its never really "in style". Something inevitably goes awry and I just ride it out. Eh...its only beer. Travis I hope this is the kinda thing you were looking for :-) Thanks for hosting this month.

Prost!