Did the marshmallows and graham cracker flavor come through in the finished beer?
This is how I know yer getting old, you don’t remember this from years ago over at at B3 forum. You berated me for it At the time. 
Nah, I ended up dumping it due to a weird salt flavor probably from crackers.
I’ve adapted a majorvices saison recipe more or less with a kaffir lime leaves and galangal (Indian ginger) saison that was great. I also make a chokecherry Belgian wit with wild-picked chokecherries that is really good.
As for non-typical but not unheard of ingredients, one saison I did with star anise and ginger in very small amounts was probably my least favorite of my saisons but still was tasty.
The chokecherry wit sounds really good! Do you have to pit the chokecherries?
From a previous NB Forum thread:
I’ve made the Brew-Haus chokecherry stout a couple times and it’s very good. I adopted their method for using chokecherries and developed a Chokecherry Belgian Wit recipe that is also very good according to a number of people…
"Also for my recipe, I’ve frozen, thawed, then macerated the chokecherries (I do them bit by bit in a food processor, no more than about 15 seconds since you DON’T want to crack the pits since they contain prussic acid, i.e. poison), and stirred that well while pasteurizing them in the wort after the boil, and then strained them out prior to fermenting, rather than tossing them pits and all into the primary fermenter. This makes it easier to rack after primary fermentation. But I had plenty of cc’s to work with…
I’ve tried both removing the stems and not removing the tiny stems and I didn’t think the batch with stems came in very noticeably more bitter, although they will for wine or mead."
You can also freeze, thaw and then squish by hand the berries, but I found that the food processor is much quicker and if done right won’t crack a single pit, and isn’t hard at all to do without cracking pits. I think I got the food processor idea from a blog about making pemmican or mead. PM me if you’d like the recipe. Since they are a strong flavored berry, they are fine for adding pre-ferment. I checked my past batch notes and found that 1.2 pounds of ripe chokecherries per gallon of finished beer is plenty of fruit. The brewer at the time (2006) at Blue Moon Brewing in Bend, OR helped me dial in my recipe. You need to let this beer mature awhile, for the fruit to integrate - it’s amazing the transformation it goes through after it’s been in the bottle for a couple months. I haven’t tried kegging it yet.
The old Brew-Haus (they are/were in Durango, CO) recipe for Rocky Mountain Choke Cherry Stout, no longer available via a Google search (I just tried), they macerated by hand the fruit, pasteurized following the boil at ~160F for 20 minutes, and then dumped pits and all into fermenters for the entire primary.
edited to reduce amount of fruit per batch after checking past batch notes.
I admire everyone’s adventuresome spirit here. I have a hard time drinking even 12 ounces of most beers with exotic ingredients. I’d hate to be stuck with a case of something I don’t really want to drink.
I would love to use my yellow raspberries or pink currants in a brew, but I eat them all before I can even get in the house :))
I’ve been thinking about using durian fruit in a beer. Best experiment with a lesser batch in case it turns out badly.
I’m back in Dubai and just scored some fun ingredients at the spice souk. One that jumps out at me is sumac. It’s tart, a little citrusy, earthy and bright purple! It’s used on salads here but can be used in place of lemon. I also picked up some dried hibiscus. I need to figure out a good base beer, but I’m leaning towards a sumac / hibiscus wheat might be a good start…
Dude, there are a LOT of signs I’m getting old!
My wife is doing some test batches for a local one-man brewery (Blank Slate, Cincinnati, OH, http://www.blankslatebeer.com/index.shtml), and sumac is one of the things they’re about to test. They’re going to start by making some teas and blending them into a Belgian Blond to see what they get.
I’d love to know how that turns out. My probrewer buddy was thinking a sumac / saffron / hibiscus farmhouse.
i tried saffron and did not care for the results. have been toying around w.hibiscus.
I used saffron in the BYO Midas Touch clone and I think it is a nice beer - one of the favored taps when folks come over to visit, although it’s taking awhile to kill the keg.
LOL! I didn’t care much for Midas Touch so there you go!
I bought it once - $14.00 for a 4-pack of 12 oz. bottles. I wonder if the subliminal sales pitch is that if it was the drink of choice of a king for which everything he touched turned to gold, it must be more precious than gold.
When I was a kid living in central Kentucky, maybe 1965 or so, I pulled up a huge sassafras root by the side of the road. A couple years ago, almost 50 years later, I put some of this, which is pretty much petrified at his point, into a club project beer. It is cool that the aroma still comes through.
You might not want to drink that. Google “toxicity of sassafras”
Of course it’s too late now, but I knew of the counter-indications. There was no vomiting, stupor, lowering of body temperature, exhaustion, tachycardia, spasm, hallucinations, paralysis and collapse.
Awe shucks!
Dollarweed in a blonde ale (named One Dollar Whore). If you live in the southeast, you know what I mean. Added at flameout, which was a mistake. The beer tasted like cooked asparagus. I would like to try it again “dry” in the secondary as I can’t help thinking the spicy aroma when I try to pull the stuff out of the landscaping would work well in a beer if done right. And in case anybody is wondering, it IS edible.