Blending Different Brews

Try some of these great recipes out, or share your favourite brew with other forumees!
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nigebeer

Blending Different Brews

Post by nigebeer » Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:27 pm

Has anyone tried blending their own different brews together?

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Eric
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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by Eric » Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:30 pm

Yes, several times.
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jaroporter
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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by jaroporter » Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:34 pm

oh yes.

..now if only i could keep more beers on tap more often.. :=P
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wezzel01
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Blending Different Brews

Post by wezzel01 » Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:42 pm

Yes, handy if you over bitter a brew and can tone it down with something less bitter. I remember my standard pub tipple when I was a teenager was a pint of light and bitter


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Mashman
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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by Mashman » Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:15 pm

wezzel01 wrote:
Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:42 pm
I remember my standard pub tipple when I was a teenager was a pint of light and bitter
Me too, 1970 ish ?
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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by wezzel01 » Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:16 pm

A little bit later. Around 1978. The barman would be chatting and forget to stop pouring so I often ended up with a full pint of bitter AND a bottle of light ale for the price of a pint


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a-slayer
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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by a-slayer » Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:50 pm

I used to love a light split as we called it, always felt like you got that little extra beer as the bitter was always overfilled. That would have been 1978 as well

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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by Haydnexport » Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:47 pm

Have done this a few times with over bittered brews , works a treat.

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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by wilfh » Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:16 pm

Eric, Jaraporter- could you elaborate? What did you do and what was the rational and did it work?
Wilf

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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by Barley Water » Thu Feb 22, 2018 4:07 pm

If you mess around with sour ales you should probably be prepared to engage in blending. I'm not doing it now but for about 5 years I would make an Aud Bruin every year. The first year, I saved the entire batch. The next year, I took half of the first batch and half of the second batch, blended them and bottled the blend (leaving me with the same blend in storage). The next year, I again did the same thing so after a while I had some really aged beer in the blend. With sours, you can get some weirdness so blending tends to get you a more uniform product. I am seriously thinking about getting this going again although this time I think I will try for more of a Rodenbach type beer. Oh, and you can also add fruit, spices, oak or whatever and really create a unique drinking experience. Big fun but extreme patience is required. :D
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)

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Sadfield
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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by Sadfield » Thu Feb 22, 2018 10:37 pm

Not tried blending yet. Although, I have just started doing something vaguely similar to Barley Wine. I have a Farmhouse Brown Ale, with various Yeasts and Bacteria, sitting in a 9L corny keg with oak chunks. The plan is to draw of 6L every 6 months and top up with a fresh beer.

Would love to do a parti-gyle sometime possibly with the Fullers recipe below, although that's blending wort.

Would be interested if anyone has done similar.Imagehttps://beerandbrewing.com/practical-parti-gyle-brewing

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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by jaroporter » Fri Feb 23, 2018 12:07 pm

20180222_204508.jpg
:D

but seriously it's great for picking up old beers with fresh ones, adding depth/flavour to brews, diluting a strong ale or just to drink something a bit different. careful blending can even make a bad beer drinkable sometimes.

i once poured a whole keg of ipa and porter 50-50 cause the blended export porter was so good.

sadfield, i partigyled once or twice but i rarely have enough boilers or fermenters available for that. it's definitely cool to do but i found more convenient ways to get multiple brews out of my setup. makes a little more sense at commercial levels i think but still fun if you want to go for it
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Eric
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Re: Blending Different Brews

Post by Eric » Fri Feb 23, 2018 2:13 pm

wilfh wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 2:16 pm
Eric, Jaraporter- could you elaborate? What did you do and what was the rational and did it work?
Wilf
When a firkin was needed for a daughter's wedding with a then maximum brewlength of 23 litres, two brews were combined. The recipes were similar, but the second was adjusted to ameliorate the properties of the first to meet the requirement. More recently, without a suitable beer on hand to bottle for another occasion, two were put together in proportion to suit.

I can have up to 6 beers in plastic (Wilko type) barrels and very often the best drink can be a mix. As some beers are coming to the end of their lives it can be revived by mixing with a new one. But what I think you are after is the combination of two or more brews into a single cask or container.

This is best done when the beers have conditioned when by trial and error the proportions of each brew can be confirmed. It is inevitable some oxygen will be introduced and dissolved CO2 will be lost. To overcome the potential dangers it is essential to ensure live and active yeast is still present and there is sufficient nutrition and sugars present.
Without patience, life becomes difficult and the sooner it's finished, the better.

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