Is mixing brews acceptable?

A benefit of this mixing thing that has not yet been mentioned: mixing three beers to get to a flavor that you like is a pretty good 'excuse' to drink three beers in one sitting.

 

Try some brown ales, American styles can be on the sweet side and English styles tend to be dryer and not as hop forward.
Both have toasted malt flavor yet are light bodied compared to stout.

Throughout the 80s and 90s I thought that a Black and Tan had to be Guinness and Bass.

 

Oh sure, have done quite a bit of blending over the years. In fact when buying new beers to review I don't limit myself to styles but do anticipate that there will be some that I don't really like or just don't care for that brewer's take on the style. Blending is the answer.

 

Missed the fact that you are in Texas (with me). @zid is dead on with the Shiner Black reference. It has the roasted malt but it isn't over the top and is a really smooth drinking beer, you should grab one and give it a go. Also there is Saint Arnolds Santos (which is tagged as a Kolsch) which is mild on the hops with a touch of roast. Also you can go to your Local Total Wine and go to the Mix 6 section and look for darker beers that might fit the bill. If you want to know what to expect, pull them up here in the beer ratings and see what people have to say about them. Mixing is cool, your money, your beer but sometimes it is good to find a beer that meets those needs so you can just grab one out of the cooler. Good luck in your search. Side note, if you are loving that Buffalo Stout, better stock up because Tallgrass has shut down production, hopefully someone will buy them and continue brewing their beers.

 

That's what Guinness' wholly-owned US subsidiary Guinness Imports aka Guinness-Harp Corp. at other times - which imported both Guinness and Bass as well as Guinness' Harp Lager - wanted you to think. Same as their desire for a "Half 'n' Half" to mean only Guinness and Harp.

For a while, they even renamed that US division "Guinness-Bass Import Co":

(which ended soon after Interbrew bought Bass IIRC).

Mixing beers in the US also went way back, and there was a period in the 1940-1950s when many brewers had bottled "Half 'n' Half (page down to "POST REPEAL") of various combinations of ale, lager and/or porter.

 

As others have mentioned, and I echo, a black and tan is a pretty normal. There have been threads over the years about favorite combinations to mix (outside the realm of black and tan). There have also been a number of discussions about beer cocktails. In short, no it is not that eccentric.

I don't often mix beers but one that I do almost every year is Crème Brûlée and Pumking from Southern Tier Brewing Co. The sweetness and the spiciness are cut down quite a bit and it makes for something unique and enjoyable. I would still only recommend it to those with a strong sweet tooth who enjoy pumpkin spice.

 

Your tastes will change over time and sometimes just to the season. What you describe is essentially a trailer park Black and Tan. If that is what you like party on dude!

 

Where's Darwin at Darwin's Beer Reviews? "Always cuvee"

Personally, I don't... do not want to sacrifice what might be a good beer for the sake of an experiment.

 

I hate to oversimplify, but - your beer, your rules. But seriously, obviously black and tans come to mind as well as big sweet stouts like Creme Brulee and Lindley Park which you could probably cut with a lower end and fairly hot BA stout or maybe a Flanders. Maybe cut an English Barleywine with a DIPA. Dunno, just saying.

 

I have mixed beers a lot. At our previous local bar a group of us made an ever changing "secret menu" but you could never actually buy the same mix two trips in a row because beers changed over too quickly. One of my personal favorite mixes is any session IPA with stout

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I've no idea where you live.
Other good light but dark Texas beers:
-Rahr's Ugly Pug is good and should be available most parts of Texas.
-I also did really like Shiners Bohemian Dark but I rarely get it.
-Legal Draft is available in a lot of Texas. They may have Black Letter Law which is a good dark lager. Stronger on the roast but light and crisp.

If you live in Southeast Texas check out the Stesti Dark Lager. It's supposed to be a Czech style dark lager, and the couple of 6 packs I got have been great.

If you live in the DFW area then Pegasus City has a very light black lager called Texikaner.

 

I don't do it often, but at times it's an interesting experiment that, at times, yields something greater than its parts. Do what you like.

 

It's nice to see that there aren't a lot of beer snobs on BA. Some would say otherwise. I say do what you want.

 

I occasionally blend different beers. Usually I do it to add attributes to a beer that i feel are missing. For example, mixing a hoppy beer with a non hoppy beer. Most of the time it works quite well. Sometimes it's a way to rescue a beer that I otherwise wouldn't care for. Sometimes the results can be quite surprising.

 

Nope... Drink however you want... Mix em or don't... Drink straight out of the bottle or can... Frosted mug? Ok by me.... Enjoy your beer how you see fit...

 

I only did it when it was encouraged and even then I didnt really want to do it.