Sadly, the old tale about carrots helping you to see better at night is just that. They only help your vision if you’re low in Vitamin A—which does help maintain good vision and which carrots can provide in bushels. About 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of carrot can provide all the Vitamin A you need for a day. So, how much of that can we squeeze into a beer?
One brewery known for using carrots is the foraging Scratch in Ava, Illinois. There, cofounders Marika Josephson and Aaron Kleidon like to find and brew with wild carrots. For their carrot-ginger saison, they add about two pounds of roasted carrots per five gallons (or one kilogram per 20 liters) after primary fermentation. They’ve also been known to add carrots to the boil—either early for a mild bitterness, or later (say, at 20 minutes remaining) for more flavor.
For more possibilities, we look to what must be one of the world’s most carrot-packed beers: Carrot Cake J.R.E.A.M., from Burley Oak Brewing in Berlin, Maryland.