I also used to be an avid homebrewer and am looking forward to getting back to it at some point - I even have a couple of hops vines growing in the backyard in preparation for the day. My most memorable homebrew back in the day was sake, which took a bit of doing since the rice has to first be treated with koji enzyme to saccharify the rice before adding yeast for fermentation. Surprisingly, it was recognizable as sake but tasted more than a little rough!