The final Friday of the month has been designated as "Fermentation Friday" for homebrew beer bloggers—think of it as a companion to The Session (which is the first Friday). This month’s FF is hosted by Travis of CNYBrew.com, and he asks the question:

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

I’ve been rolling that question around in my head for a few days and I regret to say, I can’t think of anything truly crazy that I’ve brewed with. But here’s a list of some of the things I have used in brewing, so I’ll throw the craziness issue out to the masses:

• Pumpkin – naturally. When I brew my pumpkin ale, I use real pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves).
• Licorice – actually brewer’s licorice, the stuff you can buy at the homebrew supply store, so that’s pretty tame.
• Juniper berries
• Various fruits: apples, cherries, apricots, strawberries (in a mead).
• Chocolate, but really what homebrewer hasn’t tried chocolate?
• Hops that I grew or picked myself.

Hm, that’s a pretty tame list, nothing really outrageous there at all. Now I pretty much have to brew something crazy. And blog about it, of course.