Beer Mixing...

Howdy,

Mixing beers... Taking two completed beers and joining them together to form a whole new beer. Or, maybe three different beers. The possibilities are endless.

Whilst cleaning the house today, I forgot I had opened a bottle of Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, which ended up half-full in the kitchen when I was cleaning another part of the house. As I had already drank what I had in my glass, somehow I got convinced that I was out, and dug out a Stone Smoked Porter from the basement. (Long day of cleaning, I've had... Oi...)

Once I got about halfway through my first glass, I discovered the Rasputin. I had the sort of idea that can only strike after a long frustrating day of cleaning while sipping powerful brews. I filled my half-full glass of Stone Smoked Porter with Rasputin and drank.

It was sublime. The sweetness of the caramel malts seemed to shine. The smokey characters and roastedness of both beers blended beautifully, and the yeast flavors merged into something truly beautiful. The hop edge of the Russian Imperial was tamed by the smoked malts. The aggressive hops of the Stone Porter were subdued by the smooth bittering of the Rasputin.

It was so good, I might even do it on purpose again next time.

Blending after-market beers. Do you do it? What do you blend?

-Badducky who is still cleaning the house...

Mixing is common, a lot of breweries do this to help maintain uniformity in their brews. I have to mix fruit beers with something else because they are sometimes too sweet.

Black and blues are a common larger brewery mix you can ask for at a bar. Also a few years ago dogfish head and 6 other east coast breweries blended one beer each for some event.

black and tan, cant beat it.