Mixing beers = pleasant results. Anyone else?

[ronjer]

I'm just getting home with a six pack of IPA that is warm (Trader Joes...no beer cooler).
I bought it to try for tomorrow night (Friday), and got to thinking: "Damn...I want to have one now, but do not want to wait for 30 mins in the freezer", so I see that I have some 24 oz cans of Bud Light for tailgating this Sunday(Go Seahawks!!).
Anyway, I decide that 24 oz of really cold BL and 12 oz of room temp IPA make for a cellar temp of a pale ale type brew that is pretty good!
I was totally prepared for bad results, but was pleasantly surprised.

So...does anyone else mix beers? and if so what do you mix?

I mean, it works for black and tans, amongst others....what are your success stories of beer alchemy?

 

[Nateo]

I was sitting here, drinking a severely under-attenuated quadrupel (long story), and I read your post. I tried mixing it with an aggressively hopped porter, and it's pretty good.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

I'll mix anything I've got on tap. One thing I have found is that while binary blends are almost always good, tertiary and quaternary blends are almost always bad.

Some of the Best:
Apfelwein + Porter
Apfelwein + Wit
Porter + Wit
Porter + IPA

 

[Nateo]

The apfelwein + Porter makes sense. When I was in high school I liked mixing hard cider and guinness extra stout.

 

[Beer_Guy]

I like to try different brews when I can find them. Unfortunately, some are just bad. Mixing helps save a lot of them from the back of the fridge.

I hope when I mix a VERY fruity Raspberry Ale with a yuckily hopped Robust Porter I get a very drinkable brew. At least that is my plan when I get the Porters home. I have 2 yucky Porters to try it on.

Yuckily… Heh!!! It is a good word! I said it so it HAS to be.

 

[dunnright00]

So, I follow DogfishHead on Twitter, and somone posted a blend that they did.
Then asked what's your favorite DFH blend?

I thought "What's in my fridge?"
DFH Inventory: 1 Palo Santo Marron, 2 Festina Peche

Hmm... Why not?

OMG!!! So tasty! and with the 11% ABV of the PSM.... Extra tasty!

 

[Svinto]

My first brew I did a partial boil and didnt modify my hop schedule, I also fermented way to hot. It resulted in a really fruity and sweet beer with an immense hop aroma but no bitterness to back it up.

My next batch was an IPA which I also messed up. My aroma hops was rather old and not properly stored. I also managed to oxidize the beer pretty heavily when racking resulting in a very bitter beer with almost no aroma.

At first I was a little bummed over my mediocre to bad beers but then I tried mixing two bottles, and damn, the result was awsome! Before I thought it was a sin to mix two different beers but this experiment really changed my mind

 

[bsdx]

At the end of one drinking session I found I had several glasses or partly full bottles of ipas left, I think it was an aging centennial ipa homebrew, an amarillo homebrew, and some Torpedo, just poured them all in one bottle and put it in the fridge because I had enough already and didn't want to waste it. I was pleasantly surprised at the resulting beer when I drank it a different day, it had evened all three out to a middle ground which was tasty and I could still taste the amarillo. I figure it might be a good way to take the edge off a beer you try that just isn't making your day.

Also I have a experimental keg of a cherry-smoked red beer where the smoke overpowers the rest of the flavors, so I tried blending that around 50/50 with some of a stout to see what would happen. It ended up mostly tasting like the stout, I think the smoke just hid behind the stout flavor. It wasn't a strong stout so it did not really seem watered down. So I figure it might be a way to stretch my stout while getting rid of a lesser desirable keg

 

[l1ranger]

other than black and tan, i've had the guiness and woodchuck cider mix. not bad, but not really my cup of beer.

otherwise, I've been known to mix SN with BMC. I hate doing it to the SN, but after a few, I feel better.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I once tried mixing McEwan's Scotch Ale with a Celebrator Doppelbock, hoping for the best of both worlds, instead it seems I got the worst of both. Regards, GF.

 

[dedhedjed]

I mix beers from my keezer all the time...usually one of my darker beers with whatever IPA i have at the time...lately a CDA mixed with a pliny clone has been killer...so good that i just brewed a CDA using the Pliny hop schedule...Pliny the Black.

 

[alexdagrate]

English pubs always mixed beers back in the day.

You'd walk in and ask your publican for an ale, and you'd get a rather light, highly naturally carbed, recently brewed ale.

if you were a big spender, you'd pay the extra dough to have some Old Ale mixed in from an aging barrel to give it more flavor.

 

[alexdagrate]

i just brewed a CDA using the Pliny hop schedule...Pliny the Black.

you have a recipe for that CDA you could share? sounds good.

 

[dedhedjed]

Pliny the Black

11# 2-Row
8oz de-bittered black (I might up this to a 12oz or even a pound- the wort was not quite black enough)
8oz crystal 80

I decided not to add any dextrose (which Pliny has) because I didn't want it too dry/thin.

Single Infusion Mash at 153 for 60 min- double batch sparge to reach 7.5 gallons preboil

3.5 oz Columbus 90 min
.5oz Columbus 45 min
1 oz Simcoe 30 min
2.5 oz Simcoe 0 min
1 oz Centennial 0 min

Dry hop
1 oz Simcoe --10-14 days
1 oz Columbus --10-14 days
1 oz Centennial --10-14 days

.25 oz of each of the above dry hops for the last 5 days of dry-hop

I brewed this batch on Monday, so i won't know how it turns out for a month or so (i plan to drink it young to get the most out of the aroma), but if it turns out anything like the mixture of my CDA and Pliny I'll be quite pleased.

 

[tunoffun]

I'm experimenting now fermenting the same wort w/ multiple strains of yeast (in seperate fermenters), and then mixing them post-fermentation in order to achieve unique flavor profiles.

 

[jgardner6]

Rouge Hazlenut Brown Necter with Dogfish Head Pumkin Ale is great.

Next brews: 10 Gal Oatmeal Stout, Kolsch, Pale Ale #4
Primary: Wet Hot Citra Pale Ale, Zeus IPA
Secondary: Brett Saison
Bottled: Berliner Wiesse
Kegged: 10 Gal Black IPA, Sorachi Ace Pilsner

 

[biochemedic]

I like mixing IPA of any sort with cider...

 

[devilishprune]

I just mixed a smoked porter and an american wheat that I have on tap. Makes a great black and tan.

 

[BlackBearForge]

Smuttynose Robust Porter mixed with Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale is excellent (as is Sierra Nevada Porter mixed with DFH Punkin).

On a side note I like a nice English style pale ale with a good shot (or two) of a nice gold rum in it (hey, that's a "mix"!). Which leads me to believe I'd like a "Flip", a colonial drink of ale, rum and sugar mixed with a red hot fireplace poker.