With thousands of microbreweries around the world taking beer to strange new heights and creating weird beer flavors – “Pumpkin Pie”-flavored beer in particular being ubiquitous at the moment – there’s hardly such thing as “beer”-flavored beer anymore.
• Crème Brulee. There are dessert wines, and how there’s a dessert beer. Southern Tier Brewing in New York makes their stout with lots of vanilla, so much that they think it tastes like the classic dessert, crème brulee. The brewery suggests serving it with another classic dessert, Bananas Foster, or pouring it directly on top of ice cream.
• Oysters. “Hog Island Sweetwater” are a particularly tasty type of oyster caught in the waters around San Francisco. Local beermaker 21st Amendement Brewery (named for the piece of legislation that repealed Prohibition) makes a stout with water that’s been used to soak the shells from those Hog Island Sweetwaters.
• Rocky Mountain Oysters. Another oyster stout? Not exactly. Wynkoop Brewing in Denver makes this one-of-a-kind beer with “Rocky Mountain oysters,” otherwise known as bull testicles.
• Avocado. Angel City Brewery in Los Angeles whipped up Avocado Ale especially for an Avocado Festival in California. Other possibly misguided flavors they’ve tried, in limited quantities, include “Dill Pickle” and “Au Jus.”
• Coconut Curry. Beer goes great with rich, coconut-milk-based Indian curries. This Hefeweizen variety from New Belgium Brewery purportedly pairs well with Indian food…because it is Indian food. It’s brewed with many of the same spices traditionally used in Indian cooking, such as coconut, cayenne, cinnamon, coriander, and lime leaf.