Adding Existing Beer to a New Batch

I'm new to the forum. About to brew my second ever batch of beer.

Just wondering though. I've heard references to people adding an existing beer to a new one. What would you hope to achieve with this? Does the existing beer impart some of its character on the new beer? Does it need to be a live, non pasteurised beer? When in the brewing process would you do this?

I have done it, I wouldn't recommend it, and I don't see it done too often.

cheezydemon said:

I have done it, I wouldn't recommend it, and I don't see it done too often.

Click to expand...

Also a newbie here. Why would you do that? Other than experimentation, is there something it is supposed to add to the process? Should we get the MythBusters involved?

-Tripod

usually it is used to carbonate the beer.

get this: you take some of the NEW beer, which is fresh with sugar, and add a small portion of that to your finished beer and then bottle condition.

instead of using corn sugar, you are using actual wort. if you make a duplicate of the original beer, then you actually have used nothing but the same ingredients throughout the entire batch.

This is called Krausening

You may also be referring to a style of lambic called "gueze". A one year old lambic is blended with an aged one (3 yrs). This is similar to krausening since the new lambic still has sugars. It is then bottled and allowed to carbonate.

That is the only blended beer I have ever heard of.

This is also done for a certain few styles like Old Ale and Gueuze. Like fine wine, some beers will develop complex flavor profiles when aged. These beers are often blended between batches to produce a final product with great complexity and balance - think whiskey. Of course, to blend your own beer, you'll need to have at least a couple years worth of batches ready for blending, so it's not something you need to worry about soon..or ever for that matter.

Oh...and welcome to the forum.

DeathBrewer said:

usually it is used to carbonate the beer.

get this: you take some of the NEW beer, which is fresh with sugar, and add a small portion of that to your finished beer and then bottle condition.

instead of using corn sugar, you are using actual wort. if you make a duplicate of the original beer, then you actually have used nothing but the same ingredients throughout the entire batch.

This is called Krausening

Click to expand...

Thank you, DeathBrewer and all who cleared that up for me...

I could see where that could be useful...not so much for the fairly new home-brewer but I get the point. There is definitely a plus to keeping the ingredients pure throughout. I would imagine this is most useful for combining batches with very different ages.

-Tripod