Is it wrong to blend beers

I have 4 gallons of my american wheat sitting in a keg its real mellow and too light for what I enjoy. I made it for a friend and they don't care for it.

I have 5 gallons of 8.25% abv Old Ale that I just kegged about 2 weeks ago.
I couldn't get the hops I wanted and had to used Northern & Goldings and now wish I had not used as much as I did.

I put 2/3 of the old ald and 1/3 of the American wheat in a glass and was suprised how it mellowed the beer, but still left a nice old ale taste.

Has anyone mixed beer into kegs?

I was going to take a clean keg and mix the two, or would I be better just mixing then in the glass when I pour?

Once you figure the right ratio of the two beers, go ahead and mix them. Nothing wrong with that. Historically, many beers were blended. Porters were traditionally blended between old ("stale") beer and new beer. Belgian gueze is actually blended lambics of varied ages.

I will be doing a blend myself in the next couple of weeks to deal with some minor flavor balance problems.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Blending is 100% acceptable. Hell, think of a classic black and tan! I mixed a smoked porter and an APA making B&Ts, and it was great. Hell, old-school porters were usually a mix of a three (or more, IIRC) beers - older stuff that was stale/soured, and fresher beers.

As to whether you mix in the keg or by the glass... if you don't care for the beers individually, do it in the keg, otherwise, I'd leave them individual and mix as you went, so that you effectively had three beers available instead of one.

No, it's often recommended. Most commercial swill is a number of blended vats anyway.

no! blend them as you see fit.

Newcastle Brown Ale is a commercial blended beer. I think they do a parti-gyle mash/sparge, and then brew them separately, and then recombine afterwards to get the right final flavor.

Blend away! I love it when I get to do weird and wonderful things at the taps.

However, I wouldn't blend both those beers completely together unless you need the space or a free corny. You never know if you want to adjust things again or blend one of those beers with something else.


TL

I blend in my tummy.

I screwed up a batch of cider (never add brown sugar) and found that the easiest way to make it drinkable was to mix it with a brown mild. Made for a very good pint.

I've been recommending blending for years...

The beer police won't come and take you away if you do.

However if blended improperly, the resulting mixture could become highly unstable resulting in a explosion of immense magnitude.

firepunk said:

However if blended improperly, the resulting mixture could become highly unstable resulting in a explosion of immense magnitude.

Click to expand...

now that's funny.

I had a stout that was way too sweet and heavy! I also had some leftover bottles from my first ale that was very bitter. The result of mixing the two together was FANTASTIC!! When I take a drink the first taste is the bitterness of the ale. After a second the stout takes over and bitter melts away slowly but never disappears completely. Next the little bit of coffee that was in the stout and undetectable originally creeps up for a second or two. Then right at the end the ale flavor comes in for just a milisecond. I have to be careful with it now 'cause it's too easy to polish off two or three in an hour.

blend away!

firepunk said:

However if blended improperly, the resulting mixture could become highly unstable resulting in a explosion of immense magnitude.

Click to expand...

And it is always better to do it in the keg or bottling bucket, because if you do it at the bar, you might cross the streams.

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

rabidgerbil said:

And it is always better to do it in the keg or bottling bucket, because if you do it at the bar, you might cross the streams.

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

Click to expand...

And if after tasting your new brew someone asks, "Are you a God?" You say YES!

If the kegs are almost empty, then I don't see any problem combining them. Combining them could get you a really big beer though. Let's say this beer represents the normal amount of diastatic power in the New York area. Based on this morning's reading, it would be a beer thirty-five feet tall, weighing approximately six thousand pounds.







OK it was a stretch but I went for it anyways

Oh my... what have I started...

rabidgerbil said:

And it is always better to do it in the keg or bottling bucket, because if you do it at the bar, you might cross the streams.

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

Click to expand...

Dr. rabidgerbil: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. rabidgerbil: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. rabidgerbil: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean "bad"?
Dr. rabidgerbil: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously, and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr. Raymond Stantz: Total protonic reversal!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right, that's bad. Okay, alright, important safety tip, thanks rabidgerbil.

Okay, so totally usless reply for the OP but I couldn't help it

Ok I'm blending and I promise not to cross the streams!

I like the idea of blending in the glass instead of the keg. I have 5 kegs in the cooler now, and plan on brewing another 10 gals this next week, this way I can try many different combinations.
(and I'm sure someone will come up with the number of combinations before this post gets cold)

Thanks for all the help..

Don

One thing I like about kegging is the ability to mix beers, by the pint or in the keg. Porter originated as a blended beer (according to one tradition). My Bent Rod Rye actually evolved from watering down a Hop Rod Rye clone. I wanted a hoppy session ale.

the ghostbuster references are welcome :rockin:

the FLOWERS are STILL standing

I read somewhere that a true cream ale is a 50/50 blend of the same beer fermented in primary with 1/2 as a lager and 1/2 as an ale. It is then blended in secondary and finished as an ale.

I'll be trying blending for the first time as I split a batch of a fairly high FG sweet raspberry wheat and put the "brett" on 40% of it or so, stop everything with campden and then combine. I am formulating a plan now....and oh:

"...someone saw a cockroach up on '12' ..."
"That's gotta be some cockroach"
"Bite your head of, man"

I blended a basic (boring) porter with a pale ale that had a bad twang to it - I think I over sparged and the resulting husky flavor was bad - but once I blended the two beers the husky flavor was muted and it actually tasted quite good.

I just opened up one keg and siphoned right into another.