Homer Simpson's nirvana: Beer made from Krispy Kreme doughnuts

It's like a Homer Simpson fever dream: Two breweries in Tampa, Fla., are making beer with Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Hidden Springs Ale Works and Arkane Aleworks in Tampa have starting brewing up batches of the beer, with one batch made out of dozens of glazed doughnuts, while the other is made out of cream-filled doughnuts, according to a story in Travel & Leisure magazine.

Each of the Krispy Kreme-based batches are made up of two dozen doughnuts, creating a 12.5% ABV (alcohol by volume) stout that’s “roasty” and “chocolaty,” with flavors of the glaze on the doughnuts coming through when you take a sip, said the Tampa Times, quoted in the Travel & Leisure story. 

For sure the idea is clever. But adding something, um, different to beer isn't out of the ordinary.

Home brewer Mark Mahoney brewed what he calls The Irish Breakfast Stout after a morning bowl of Cocoa Puffs. The Milwaukee dad's light-bulb moment came when he saw how the milk in the bowl reacted to the chocolate. 

"You can't just throw the stuff in. There's still a science behind it," said Mahoney, who said the process took longer than brewing a typical beer might because he had to filter over the grain to get all the particulates the cereal leaves behind.

His beer, which includes Jameson whiskey in the recipe, taps in at 10% ABV. Not coincidentally, Mahoney's sugar-laden cereal is stored with his whiskey and bourbons in a cupboard high above the refrigerator. 

Look for the beer to possibly land on the menu when Mahoney opens his Mahoney's Basement brewery in Milwaukee in 2018. 

You can already get beer made with lobster: Dogfish Head started brewing Lobster Chocolate in 2012. The Delaware brewery described the beer as "a robust porter base and was brewed with live lobsters, which were added directly to the boil to cook off for the kitchen." 

Chicago's Off Color Brewing has another take on adding a popular sweet to a stout with its Amager Dino'smores, an Imperial Marshmallow Stout brewed with graham crackers, cocoa nibs, & vanilla beans. It has an ABV of 10.5%. 

Sometimes, too, a beer lover takes matters into his or her own hands. Mahoney has heard of beer enthusiasts who weren't able to get a bottle of the limited Bourbon County Stout variant made with coffee from Chicago's Goose Island. So they made their own versions by buying coffee from Intelligensia Coffee & Tea, the same used in the variant and using a French press to get the coffee in the beer.