So...very dumb question...and let me start with how I got there. Finished a nice Alpha King and grabbed a handfull of Skittles. The combination was..interesting... So my questions is...has anyone done any sort of homebrew recipe involving candy of any sort?? I've been on numerous brewery tours in MI here and some of the interesting things I have found: Kuhnhenn: Spring equinox, does a cereal variation of different beers (lucky charms, cinnamon toast crunch, etc.) Dark Horse: Forget the name of the beer but threw 100+ Long John donuts into the fermentor after the boil Anyone ever done anything with candy involved?
I have not done anything like this, but I think I recall a few times reading about brewing with Resse's Peanut Butter Cups. I don't recall the reports of the outcomes though. As elusive as the flavor of maple is to be able to get a significant amount of it into a beer, using some sort of maple-flavored candy might be a way to do that.
If you do internet searches you might find competitions where candy or sweet breakfast cereals were required. I know a guy who did stuff like this long before the MI breweries.
recently read a post of someone who used full snickers bars in his boil http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/posts/2480022/
I think I have read about using Jolly Ranchers, but maybe that was mead. Also, in mead, those candy cinnamon hearts and atomic fireballs.
Not likely. The main reason why the maple flavor is so elusive, is that caramelized sugar is a major component in what we identify as "maple flavor" and said sugar gets fermented out by the yeast. I would supposed this would be no different if adding maple candies to the boil rather than maple syrup. Then again I'm basing that assumption on the fact that most of the maple candies I see (while in VT) are made from real maple syrup rather than artificial flavorings. So with candy in general, it's all a question of what the candy is made of. Presumably, lots of sugar that will just get fermented out anyway plus other possible ingredients. Shitty mass produced candy might contain plenty of other ingredients that you might not want in your beer. Dyes are the first thing that come to mind, also possibly some types of oils / fats that could kill head retention, potassium sorbate (for "freshness") that could stunt yeast, etc.
