Beer nerds have been using french presses for beer for years now. Admittedly I've never done it before writing this post. After my first experiment, I plan on doing it more and experimenting with as many flavors in the future as much as possible.
A quick introduction to a french press: it is typically used for coffee grounds and hot water. You let the hot water steep in the grounds, and then manually push a filter down, forcing the newly made coffee through while leaving the beans below the filter.
Randalls, in the beer world, are used in breweries to infuse flavors (typically fruit) on a draft line between the keg and the tap - giving the beer a little extra flavor. Why? Because we can. Randalls are quite fun.
On a smaller scale, ie: one glass: We can do that same thing with a french press. Whether it's cereal, fruit, or marshmallows, we can infuse different beer styles with anything.
My first experiment? West Sixth Cocoa Porter and Fruity Pebbles cereal.
Muddling the Fruity Pebbles
Steeping the porter and cereal
The finished product
Keeping in mind I only used about half the can in the mixture and added the rest for carbonation, the result wasn't too bad. Although it was a little too sweet (perhaps next time I use less cereal), overall the flavor was normal and tasted like...Cocoa Pebbles.
Want your beer featured in future posts? Have recipe suggestions? E-mail michael@buildingbreweries.com