Blending Beers: Share Your Experiments

Take up home brewing?

 

We did Hoegaarden, Framboise and Youngs Double = Neapolitan

 

Yesterday, I made a "Black and Tan" with a Boulevard Smokestack Dark Truth Stout and a Real Ale Brewer's Cut Blonde Barleywine....YUMMY! It was so good and I am going to make another one today!

 

Petrus Red Ale tasted like medicine and it wasn't sour so I blended it with Petrus Aged Pale and they definitely made it more drinkable.

 

I was at a bar with some friends once when one of them ordered a pitcher of a mixed beer that was supposed to be a hot item at this particular establishment. I was somewhat disappointed when I tasted what seemed to be a really watery stout. The combo: Oakshire Overcast Espresso Stout (delicious) and PBR (not so delicious). It was sad to see a good beer being abused like that.

 

BA Vanilla DL + Crianza.


Was so bad we drainpoured it

 

As a matter of fact, I just popped a 1995 Sam Adams Triple Bock. After excavating the cork it poured silky smooth and still, dark as a moonless night in the foothills west of Fort Collins. Being 18 years of age, it revealed no signs of ropiness, oxidation or other funk that might have led astray the intention to brew this insane concoction back in 1995. Dark (REALLY dark) chocolate, singed molasses, burnt marshmallow... all the flavors from the still bottoms melded into a primordial ooze that was both intense and balanced but too viscous... So I blended half of the 8.45 oz cobalt bottle with 12 oz of cold Blue Moon. Yep. And to no detriment; rather a factor of 10 increase in drinkability since the flavor was unchanged and the BM was unrecognizable. Plus I now had a whole pint of SA Triple Bock to finish. A win for sure...

 

How much Coors did you put in it?

 

3 floyds zombie dust with new belgium rampant..the rampant zombie..the hops in both beers really complement each other

 

1/2 KBS + 1/2 Birth of Tragedy last April or May... only bc the keg of BOT was flat. The KBS served the purpose of carbonating the drink, but the BOT was dominant - way deeper in color & flavor, and more viscous. Made the KBS seem like it had nothing to do with bourbon or oak.

 

Nowhere near as good as the Kuhnhenn Solar Eclipse + Raspberry Eisbock, I bet. I got to be a part of that. In-freaking-credible.

Raspberry Eisbock in and of itself is just ridiculous. Like a raspberry Tootsie Roll pop in liquid form. SOOOOO good.

 

Anchor Porter with Smuttynose Robust Porter. They compliment each other amazing well and fill in each other's gaps.

 

After a few of us finished a tasting of all six Backstage Series beers a few weeks ago, I mixed CBS and Blushing Monk. It was actually really damn good!

 

It's okay. Hops overpower the roasted notes of the 1554, but that's the only unbalanced thing about that blend.

I did Brooklyn Dry Irish with Saint Arnolds Summer Pils... pretty decent. And Ten Fidy with Ruthless Rye... eh, I regret wasting Ten Fidy so carelessly, but it was a very interesting combo. I would do it again if Ten Fidy ever loses it's appeal.

 

I worked at a tap house and bottle shop that regularly had everything from rare and regular Cascade, Stone, Upright, Block 15, Russian River, Gigantic, Double Mountain, Boneyard, Logsdon, Bear Republic and others. We have 18 taps. I regularly would try to blend small amounts, to see if they were viable and/or awesome recommendations for customers. I got very good at it, so much so that I got a blending nick name (won't give it away as I like anonymity, somewhat ). There are no guidelines, but:

Fruity or Fruit Beers are the best blenders
Most ciders work as great beer blenders
Most BA beers work very well with blending
95% of the time IPAs will only blend with other IPAs. Generally with good results if it is a strong enough IPA
Sour beers blend beautifully with many types of beers (including any of the above mentioned categories)

The blander the beer, i.e. ambers, reds, craft pilsners or porters, the less likely it will blend well.
That being said, Radlers are amazing.
The more intense (see above) a beer is the better it will blend.

Trying blends in small amounts (literally sips) with varying ratios can help you find the tastiest blend for a larger pour. Sometimes it's 10/90, 25/75, 50/50.

Blending rocks!! After all... it is just beer.

 

I know a lot of people that mix tomato/V8 juice w/ their AAls. Also know that Berliner Weiss mixes w/ raspberry and elderberry (?) juices too, etc. I splashed a little Half and Half in my Impy stout (Rasputin) the other day. Just a splash, not a lot. It was kinda good. Tried it in my Sam Adams Cream stout too. Kinda tasty. Think maybe I should try some tropical, citrusy fruit gizmo in my IPAs, too. Am I nutz? Not sayin' it improves the beer, just tryin' sumpin' different.

Do y'all try oddball beer and other stuff things? Honestly, I prefer the way the brewer intended it, but sometimes weird combos are alright.

 

I went through a phase where I tried mixing Fernet with a number of different styles. I can't recommend anything that came out of that. I'm all for experimentation!

 

The Dude would definitely approve of the half-n-half thing. Plus, it's not all that far from a beer float, flavor-wise.

I've mentioned this before, but as soon as I saw Rick Bayless make a Mexican Snakebite I just had to have one (Vienna lager+cider+tamarind puree), and found them to be really enjoyable.

(btw- the other thing that goes in Berliner Weiss is woodruff syrup, though I prefer it straight).

 

Half DarkLord, Half DFH 120. Amazing!!!

 

Guinness and Monster energy.