FORT WORTH, Texas — Martin House Brewing Company in Fort Worth has a reputation for unique beers.
The Turnbull Kellie is made with haggis, and the Azathoth has squid ink in it.
The company's latest brew, though, comes from the mind of Buddy the Elf and includes spaghetti.
“The spaghetti in a beer really grabs a lot of attention for people,” John Laughman, a shift brewer at Martin House said.
The Cotton-Headed Ninny-Muggins is based on Buddy’s spaghetti recipe in the movie Elf. In the movie, Buddy puts maple syrup on his spaghetti along with M&Ms, marshmallows and chocolate.
So, Martin House just dumped all of those ingredients into a beer.
“It was that straight up. That’s what we did,” Laughman said. “The question was, ‘Is it going to be any good?’ A lot of people were like, ‘How could it be any good’?”
Laughman said they got the idea months ago and started prepping, including getting 10 pounds of uncooked noodles, massive bags of marshmallows and chocolate to dump into their pilot system.
“It’s kind of crazy when you like see that much candy at once,” he said. “Spaghetti noodles are mostly wheat and that’s what a lot of beers are, so it’s just re-adding an ingredient that’s already there."
They made 300 gallons of the Elf-themed beer and launched it Friday. Less than a week later, they’re almost out.
“We had lines out the door the day we released it,” Laughman said. “You get all the sweet stuff, so the chocolate comes through, marshmallows. It’s a lactose bomb, which is what we’re kind of known for, so nice and sweet, creamy.”
It’s one of 120 different beers they’ve made this year, and Laughman claims it’s relatively tame.
“We just deconstruct whatever we what to make, and then we turn that into the beer,” he said. “It’s kind of as simple as it sounds.”
The beer can only be found on tap or in cans at Martin House Brewing’s tap room in Fort Worth. Once it’s gone, they aren’t making more, at least this year.
“If you think this one is really crazy, then just wait until the next one,” Laughman said.