Tobacco, lobsters and cereal are some of the latest OTT trends in craft beer

The "German Beer Purity Law" (Reinheitsgebot ) of 1516 codified that beer could only be made with barley, hops, and water (updated to include yeast a few hundred years later, when French microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered what had been responsible for fermentation all along).

There's no such dogma in the contemporary world of craft brewing, however, where producers have been perversely pushing the envelope with adjunct ingredients into the infinite.

Here are seven extreme examples of uniquely bizarre beers that including bacon, tobacco, frozen pizza, and even money.

Stay Puft

Barreled Souls Brewing Co. / Slab Sicilian Street Food

Barreled Souls in Saco, Maine, is one of the more exciting microbreweries in the country, exclusively utilising oak barrels with its impossibly Burton Union fermentation system (an antique method developed in the 1830s, where yeast is harvested as it bubbles to the top of the barrel Slab .

Xyauyù Kentucky

Le Baladin

Italy's head-in-the-clouds Le Baladin Brewery is responsible for creating one of the world's most unique beers with Xyauyù more reminiscent in flavour and strength port or sherry. Of all the experimental Xyauyù versions produced over the years Le Baladin has during the aging in bourbon barrels. Like sipping on a dram in an old humidor, the oxidative dark fruitiness of the beer works beautifully with the added whiskey aroma and leathery cigar flavour.

Reposé

Jester King Brewery

Farmhouse brewing outfit Jester King, out of Austin, boasts an authentic rusticity in its style. (Think beers with foraged flowers, obscure fruit, native fungi, and even local kombucha.) Reposé is quite possibly the brewery's "farmiest" offering to date, drawing inspiration from the stone barns of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France – birthplace of the traditional bière de garde ("beer for keeping") style of ales. Hay was used in the mash for this winter-brewed beer, which was laid to rest in former brandy barrels for almost a year before bottling. Unfiltered and unpasteurised, this creation is essentially a barn in liquid form –earthy, sour, and mustily straw-laden.

Lucky Charms Lager

Kuhnhenn Brewing Co.

The eccentric outsider artists of craft beer – the Kuhnhenn gang of Warren – has a charming brewing sensibility; the father, at what was originally a family-run hardware store, let his sons sell homebrew equipment out of the shop when big-box chains such as Home Depot Inc. began to encroach on other parts of the business. Fast-forward a few years, and the brothers had fully transformed the place into a brewery. One of their most popular annual traditions is a Breakfast of Champions celebration, which they host on St. Patrick's Day morning, serving a miscellany of breakfast-inspired beers. One of the perennial favourites is their Lucky Charms Lager, brewed with the eponymous breakfast cereal – which comes through surprisingly neatly in aroma and taste.

Big Ass Money Stout

Lervig Aktiebryggeri/Evil Twin Brewing

These two Scandinavian craft beer cult heroes appear to have jumped the shark with this particular oddity. To create Big Ass Money Stout, Danish gypsy-brewing label Evil Twin collaborated with the great Norwegian brewery Lervig and aimed to go "really stupid." Brewed with frozen Grandiosa-brand ham-and-peppers pizza (popular in Norway) and actual money (Norwegian kroner bank notes), the beer finished with a staggering 17.5 per cent alcohol by volume. While the gimmicky adjuncts lent a minimal contribution in the final product, the beer is otherwise delicious – huge notes of dark chocolate, coffee, and bitter licorice.

Magnus Opus

Omnipollo

Perusing Omnipollo's playful portfolio of beer can feel like taking a drunken stumble through Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory – most of the Swedish brewery's recipes recall the obsessions of a sweet-toothed youth. With decadent beers modelled after blueberry cheesecake, mango lassis, and soft-serve ice cream, Omnipollo's Magnus Opus is perhaps its biggest pantry-raid to date. A Heaven Hill bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout clocking in at almost 15 per cent ABV, it was brewed with cassia cinnamon, toasted poppy seeds, charcoal, and cold-smoked bacon. Dark, thick, and redolent of a 7-Eleven, the beer showcases all the adjuncts at points.

Saison dell'Aragosta

Oxbow Brewing Co. / Birrificio del Ducato

The brewers at rural Newcastle's in-the-woods farmhouse producer Oxbow crafts beer that beautifully articulates the coastal area's terroir – and what screams Maine more than lobster? They teamed up with their friends at Italy's Birrificio del Ducato to create this rustic seaside saison. Vegans beware: The two breweries utilised fresh, live Maine lobsters – as well as local sea salt – in the process. The result is an incredibly evocative liquid that recalls the state's famed coastline with stunning fidelity – dry, tart, and crisply oceanic.

Bloomberg

Have you been wooed by an outrageous brew? Share your experience in the comments section below.