Putting unorthodox ingredients and adjuncts into beer is nothing new. Pumpkin beer has marked spooky season since the early ‘80s and the pastry stout boom of the mid-2010s saw everything from brownies and marshmallows to coffee and ancho chiles get added to brews. Most of the time, these bonus ingredients do more to allure the reluctant drinker than to deter.
But there are some beers that have crossed the threshold from experimental to borderline absurd. When bull testicles, whole clams, and Norwegian Kroner make their way into the mash, the masses take notice, whether or not the resulting brews taste good. So without further ado, here are the beers over the years with the most absurd, out-of-pocket ingredients imaginable.
Dogfish Head Brewery Beer for Breakfast: Scrapple
Dogfish Head is no stranger to breaking convention when it comes to brewing, hence its slogan “off-centered stuff for off-centered people.” In 1994, the year before Dogfish Head opened its doors, founder Sam Calagione was allegedly working on a breakfast-themed stout as a homebrew, which led to the advent of its Mexican coffee-infused Chicory Stout. Twenty years later, the brewery debuted its Beer for Breakfast stout brewed with coffee, lactose, applewood-smoked barley, maple syrup, and super-lean Rapa scrapple. Originally coined by the Pennsylvania Dutch community, scrapple is a breakfast-style patty made of pork scraps, cornmeal, and spices. Despite this brew’s wild ingredient list, by most accounts, it’s pretty mundane. Regardless, the breakfast stout idea took hold and made for legendary beers down the
