Blending Homebrew

[GPP33]

I’ve never tried blending my beers before but I currently have a stout and a citra pale ale on tap so I gave it a shot. The end product was surprisingly good! I know stouts and pale ales are nothing new (black and tan) but it’s new for me. The stout didn’t have a good crush and while all the specialty grains got throughly milled there was a significant % of the base grain that remained in tact. As you can imagine the OG was low, ABV was low and it’s super roasty. I guess it’s fine for someone who loves roasty beers but that’s not me. So 2 parts stout to one part pale ale was the ticket and made a delicious beer. What are some of your blending success stories?

 

[day_trippr]

I run six faucets, including a dedicated nitro rig for my imperial stout (literally "always on tap"), usually have at least three pale/ipa/neipa varieties going along with some style of lager and a Belgian.
Haven't done anything quite as dramatic as a stout/pale blend - they've always been between the three similar styles, and they can be quite good. A Galaxy/Golden Promise SMaSH mixes nicely with a Heady Topper clone, for instance, as does a Julius clone with a Focal Banger clone.
Otoh, I tried the Belgian with some BoPils and it was just "ok". Some blends work, some no so much.

In any case, it is one of the unadvertised benefits of running taps. Unless one has a buddy cracking two bottles can be less than ideal...

Cheers!

 

[homebrewer_99]

I usually make 2 or 3 batches of the same recipe 1 week apart from each other...Sunday is my usual brew day. When the last one is done I will blend all 2 or 3 so that any slight differences in malt/hop flavor, color, alcohol level, etc., will not be noticeable.

As for mixing styles, I've done that too. Most of the time it's for the purpose of changing the flavor of another beer I may not be enjoying at the moment.

I also use a lemon-lime soda to make them into Radlers.

 

[r4dyce]

Not mine, but At harpoon brewery they mixed their imperial IPA and a White. They called it an Imperial Stormtrooper. It was actually quite good . The bitterness and citrus notes from the IPA mixed really with the orange spicy sweetness of the white.

 

[GPP33]

Kind of along the lines of blending, made stout floats last night. Took a glass of the stout and added vanilla ice cream. I was surprised how good it was, will definitely try it again.

 

[Calder]

In my younger days I used to get 'Black and tan', 'Black velvet', 'Brown over Bitter', and probably others. Was the hip thing to do. To be honest, I think it just ruins a decent crafted beer.

I see no reason to mix beers except to mask the flavor of a poorly brewed beer. I've too much beer to waste my time with trying to make a bad beer taste OK.

Now, putting ice cream in a stout may be interesting.

 

[AGinABQ]

In my younger days I used to get 'Black and tan', 'Black velvet', 'Brown over Bitter', and probably others. Was the hip thing to do. To be honest, I think it just ruins a decent crafted beer.

I see no reason to mix beers except to mask the flavor of a poorly brewed beer. I've too much beer to waste my time with trying to make a bad beer taste OK.

Now, putting ice cream in a stout may be interesting.

Black and Tans have been making a comeback in my area lately.