I know that hops is the primary flavoring in beer, but what other flavorings, if any, have you tried with your brewing over the years, and with what results? This is an open question for anybody to answer.

BLASPHEMY!!!!

Hops is used to counter or balance the sweetness of the malt and help preserve the beer. I heard rosemary could be used in its place.

Rosemary! Interesting. Would it help preserve beer like hops do?

Would Thyme speed up the brewing process?

My "Blasphemy" reaction was directed towards adding things like apricots, jalepeno peppers (I've really heard of that one), peanut butter, etc.

As I suspect you already know, Porter was originally made with anything that had sugar in it. The peasants just threw any old fruit they could find into a barrel and let it ferment. I'll bet that was 'different'. Today Porter is just another lightly hoped beer with no particular character.

Cheers,