Martin House Brewing Company is known for some pretty outrageous brews.
There was Space Pizza, with tomatoes and oregano. Then a mustard pickle beer. And the Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins, an ode to Elf with maple syrup, M&Ms and spaghetti.
That list is about to get even stranger.
On Saturday, the Fort Worth brewery will release Murph Juice, a barbecue sauce beer.
And next month, it will introduce Bun Length, a hot dog-flavored hard seltzer. Yes, really.
“It’s just another day in the office for us,” joked Shugg Cole, the brewery’s marketing director. “We’ve got to keep pushing the envelope.”
For Murph Juice, Martin House teamed up with T&D BBQ in Weatherford.
Although this is not the brewery’s first barbecue-related brew — it previously worked with Heim BBQ in Fort Worth on a bacon burnt ends beer — this is its first barbecue sauce beer.
Brewers started with a sour base, then added the same spices in T&D’s own barbecue sauce. Think black pepper, garlic, onion powder, cayenne, cinnamon and soy sauce, plus a few secret ingredients.
Its alcohol content is 6.9%.
“People get worried that it’s going to be a thick, gelatinized drink,” Cole said. “But it’s really just a good beer with a tangy kick.”
If barbecue sauce beer raises eyebrows, hot dog-flavored hard seltzer may cause jaws to drop.
Martin House added hard seltzer to its roster just a few weeks ago, and Bun Length will be its first specialty seltzer. Over the years, Cole said the brewery has joked about finding a way to incorporate hot dogs. Seltzer seemed like the perfect, if unusual, vehicle.
Bun Length, with a 5.2% alcohol content, is brewed with the leftover water from 52 pounds of boiled frankfurters.
It should taste just like it sounds, Cole said, like a boozy hot dog.
For its release, Martin House is planning a hot dog-themed party July 16 with a John Cougar Mellencamp cover band, food trucks and plenty of mustard pickle beer on tap to complement the seltzer.
And of course, a hot dog eating contest.
