Could Candy in Beer Be the New Thing?

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Want to chew your beer?

Word of this news has quickly circulated around the craft beer world. Apparently Alaskan-based brewer, Kenai River Brewing Co. is concocting a Belgian Tripel that features gummy bears introduced to the batch at some point in the brewing process.

The beer calls for 20 lbs of candy sugar and approximately 15 lbs of the childhood snack.

First of all, I want to meet the person that came up with that idea. I love gummy bears. I grew up eating them. Sometimes I still do. Hell, a few times I even came across some rum-infused gummy bears. This idea is one of those that can hit on one of two opposite ends of the spectrum. It can either go very wrong, or become a new fad. The next thing I know, I'll be walking into my local watering hole to find some eccentric drunk with gummy candy floating around in his craft beer.

It brings up an entertaining question that beer enthusiasts have been debating for years: What is acceptable to put in your beer?

Mainly, this debate has been around whether or not to have fruit in your beer. Now, there are many people that enjoy doing it as there are that consider it a sacrilege. Personally, I've grown out of putting fruits in most of the beers that I drink. I've made it well known that some of my favorite beer styles are made with plenty of fruit.

Corona has gone as far as to incorporate the lime in Corona Extra as a marketing ploy. It's also very common to see someone with an orange slice on the rim of a glass of Blue Moon Belgian White. If you've progressed from that stage of beer drinking and have moved on to bigger and better brews, you might see a few instances where someone uses a lemon or an orange with a certain type of witbier.

The debate might not ever end. I simply prefer a well-crafted fruit beer and sometimes a lemon with a Hoegaarden. Now we face the possibility of putting candy in our beers, something I've never heard nor thought of until yesterday. Jesus. With this style that Kenai is playing with, it might help. The few Tripels that I've had have tasted terrible, in my opinion. The fact that gummy bears are going to be brewed into beer is somewhat ironic. The gummy bear originated in Germany.