Blending homebrew

[Kealia]

The other night I accidentally blended two of my beers and the result was great. I don't know why I've never thought about doing it before.

To make a long story short, I swapped kegs and beer lines and ended up having my beer line for my Levitation clone now hooked up to the keg pouring my Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale. When I opened the tap I got about 3 ounces of liquid amber goodness and then the pour went really light as I realized what was going on.

The end result was delicious! The NS Pale Ale is basically a wheat beer base so that added to the Levitation made for one heck of a beer. Now that I have the lines straightened out I think I'm going to do it again, but on purpose this time. It sort of reminded me of the old Reeses Peanut Butter Cup commercials, "Hey, your peanut butter is on my chocolate! Hey, your chocolate is in my peanut butter. Yum."

Do any of you blend your beers?

[RickBeer]

I don't, but remember others saying they mixed a crappy beer with a good beer to avoid tossing it.

[swenocha]

As I bottle carbonate, I have been known to do this when I (rarely) have a batch that isn't well carbed. Blending sours and such commercially is something we do all the time at tastings as well. I have also blended with homebrew if I get a commercial bottle that's lost its carb.

[Beer-lord]

I've semi done this but not with much luck. The only decent one was a mosaic beer with a bland smash but it wasn't worth talking about.
I think I'll try more if I can remember too.

[Brewbirds]

BB2 had me doing that at one point back when we were still brewing ( ).

I know we blended our Irish Imperial Stout with our ESB when he became briefly obsessed with Black and Tans but I never could get the pour technique down and he finally left me alone.

It tasted great though, of course Kealia would beg to differ.

We've done a Shandy when our SMaSH period ran amok and we were buried in Blondes. Not a horrible problem to have, especially when it is 115 in the shade.

We even used some Busch once to try and save our gaggingly disgusting Mr. B version of the White House Oval Office honey amber nothing could have saved that particular disaster.

Blending offers the homebrewer a way to possibly salvage an uninfected but otherwise imperfect (i.e. too much specialty grain, mis-measured bittering hop, too sweet) batch.

All in all its pretty cool when it works.

[mashani]

Thread Necromancy.

So, I had about 1/4th a bottle of the Ginger Saison left which is a good beer that I'm happy to drink but not great beer (After some age I think there is a bit too much ginger for what I'd consider great, I think I would use maybe 2/3 or 1/2 as much Thai Ginger candi syrup next time) - and I had about 1/2 a bottle of the Plum Saison left which I love and is quite excellent as long as you like *juicy*.

I had thought about adding some Ginger to the Plum Saison but did not.

So I blended the two to see what would happen.

And that was super. I might experiment a bit more with the two and try to find the perfect amount of ginger.

So I think when I do the Plum Saison again, which I certainly will, I will use about 1/4th or 1/3rd or whatever it turns out to be amount of Ginger candi syrup that I used in the Ginger saison.

Anyways, blending can be cool.

[MrBandGuy]

I've blended a few times when I had complementary styles on tap. Stout plus Bitter, for example. Love2brew even sells lots for this purpose.

[mashani]

Thread Necromancy again. Because more people should try this, and too many people dump homebrew for silly reasons.

So I got a bottle of the Mt. Hood patersbier I bottled a few weeks back. The bottle had a cap failure, so it was flat. Some people would be silly and dump it.

Not I. I took some of the very aggressively carbed BPA I made last fall and blended the two, to end up with a moderately carbed higher end (abv) Belgian Single like beer.

And the results are absolutely delicious, actually better then either beer on their own I think.

[Tabasco]

No time to blend ... when I tap a keg, I lie with my head under it and have the full contents of the keg shoot right down into my gut.

[mashani]

No time to blend ... when I tap a keg, I lie with my head under it and have the full contents of the keg shoot right down into my gut.

I'm sure it blends with something in there...

[John Sand]

Great thread, and some very funny stuff.
Only once, I had a Belgian Pale and an AIPA on tap, I decided to blend them to give me an idea what a Belgian IPA would be like. It was good, but I left it there.
Right now I have a less than successful Rye Pale on tap. When my next IPA is ready, I may blend. The hops in the Rye are harsh, maybe other hops will subdue them. If not, time and more time.

[FedoraDave]

I've never done this, although when I've had a batch that wasn't quite up to snuff, instead of consigning it to the tubes, I've used it for cooking. Braising beef, or using it in a stew or a sauce is a great way to salvage a less-than-stellar beer.

[John Sand]

The IPA is on tap, very good, and mixes well with the Rye.

[Tabasco]

I've never done this, although when I've had a batch that wasn't quite up to snuff, instead of consigning it to the tubes, I've used it for cooking. Braising beef, or using it in a stew or a sauce is a great way to salvage a less-than-stellar beer.

Good Idea. Could boil some ribs in it, and then let 'em simmer on the grill with rub or sauce.

[John Sand]

Rise, thread, and go forth!
I have two beers on tap right now: An acceptable Belgian IPA that I feel needs something, and a Christmas Dubbel that has too much dark sugar, making it roast-y. I think they blend well. Lst night I brought the mix to a party and received unanimous approval. When the kegs are low enough I intend to combine them and free space for an ESB.