Blending beer with wine or mead

[MichaelM]

I received this interesting email and thought I'd share. Been thinking of doing this.


Not much information about blending beer with wine on the Internet.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/2015/01/short-pours-blending-your-creations/?utm_source=bm23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Blend+your+creations+for+entirely+new+experiences%21&utm_content=A+Short+Pour+-+Content+worth+reading.&utm_campaign=20150105+-+Short+Pours+-+Blending

 

[MartinOC]

There's probably a good reason there's no info. on the internet about it - fundamentally a bad idea.

With the exception of honey in beer (braggot), you're likely to end-up with a horrible, undrinkable mess.

Stick with one thing or the other.

$0.02

 

[droid]

fwiw some breweries use wine barrels for long term conditioning so it's not black and white

 

[MichaelM]

Prickly Moses in the Otways makes an amazing Chardonnay IPA. Tried it at the GABS

 

[Mardoo]

Unfortunately the link didn't work for me, but I think this is what it was aimed at.

There are a number of interesting beers I've had that blended beer wort with wine must and then co-fermented, the most interesting being a muscat barleywine from a brewer whose name I can't remember. Just another type of fruit beer, really.

It sounds kind of awful to blend beer and wine post-fermentation, but then I'm sure someone could pull it off. I haven't tried the Prickly Moses one, but would if I could, just cuz I'm interested in that experimental shiz. They'd be the folks to give it a go, considering their recent barrel-aged sour coffee stout, which sounds truly awful but apparently wasn't. I reckon a nice dry riesling saison could be the bomb. I'd co-ferment though. Wine and beer fermentations throw very different esters, ketones, etc so balancing that would be the challenge, in my opinion.

Curiouser and curiouser...there are so many beers now that aren't really beer anymore.

 

[Dave70]

I recall an episode of Brewing TV where the blended up a drink called a 'hot Scotchy' from the first runnings of a parti - gyle to ward off the cold.
Basically blending scotch and hot wort. Just the ticket if you like the idea of blending but not the idea of waiting.

 

[TimT]

Why not? I was discussing online the other day a juniper braggot I wanted to do - 1/3 rye, 1/3 barley malt (Maris Otter), 1/3 honey. (I've got that fermenting away now....) There were several interesting suggestions; one wine brewer jumped in with the suggestion that I brew the beer half on the one hand, and brew a strong juniper-spiced metheglyn separately - then add the metheglyn to the beer afterwards. Another brewer told me blending in this way was a big part of the wine brewing world.

I've made a number of blended meads now: blackberry juice and honey (melomel), grape juice and honey (pyment), a couple of braggots. The characters of each of the drinks are different - but in no way unpleasant.

One of the historical trends in brewing in the last few centuries seems to have been one of simplification: from medieval gruits, often brewed with a combination of herbs and a combination of grains (barley, oats, wheat, rye, etc) we've gone to the modern drink (barley and hops). Perhaps one of the casualties of this trend of simplification were 'blended' beers too.

 

[MichaelM]

These Brewers http://propolisbrewing.com/ale.html in Washington are using different herbs and plants in their beer. Had a chance to sample some at a farmers market in Seattle a while back. Definitely an acquired taste. Could be that that's how beer taste before hops was being used as a bittering substance

 

[MHB]

Unfortunately the link didn't work for me, but I think this is what it was aimed at.

There are a number of interesting beers I've had that blended beer wort with wine must and then co-fermented, the most interesting being a muscat barleywine from a brewer whose name I can't remember. Just another type of fruit beer, really.

It sounds kind of awful to blend beer and wine post-fermentation, but then I'm sure someone could pull it off. I haven't tried the Prickly Moses one, but would if I could, just cuz I'm interested in that experimental shiz. They'd be the folks to give it a go, considering their recent barrel-aged sour coffee stout, which sounds truly awful but apparently wasn't. I reckon a nice dry riesling saison could be the bomb. I'd co-ferment though. Wine and beer fermentations throw very different esters, ketones, etc so balancing that would be the challenge, in my opinion.

Curiouser and curiouser...there are so many beers now that aren't really beer anymore.

My first reaction would be - if its good enough to drink its too good to blend! but a Muscat/Barley Wine actually sounds all right... dam it.
Mark

 

[Dips Me Lid]

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post1888/
this is a great podcast about blending wine and beer yeast in mixed fermentations, I think several beer styles could work well with wine flavours, wish I had a pint of Sav Blanc Nelson Sauvin Saison right now.

 

[mofox1]

Not quite the same thing, but I used to enjoy the Pepperjack ale. It used shiraz juice as a fermentable (apparently).

Came back to this beer after I started brewing my own and found I didn't like it at all... dunno if it changed, or I did.

 

[Kingy]

I made the 3 shades of stout recipe in the database through winter and was drinking it with a small glass of my home barrell aged tawny as a sipper between beers. The flavours where awesome together so I started pouring a small glass of port probably about 40mls into the schooner of stout. It was magnicifent from what I remember. [emoji2]

 

[Bruer]

There's actually some historical traction to combined wine and beer style drinks. Here's a recipe from Western Australia in 1845: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article645793

It's basically grape juice, brewing sugar and treacle boiled with hops. Without malt its not beer per se, but treacle was often used in colonial WA beer in lieu of roasted and crystal malts from what I can tell. Haven't tried the recipe but sounds interesting.

 

[MHB]

Personally I like Tea and Coffee, just not in the same cup thanks.
I can show you historical brewing references for additions of Cobalt Salts (yes they killed people) Arsenic, Propylene Glycol, Common Salt (in large quantities), strychnine (bittering substitute)... to beer, there have been plenty of adulterants tried over the years.
Just because someone did something once, doesn't mean it was a good idea the first time, nor that repeating the process is called for.
See Darwin awards
Mark

 

[Danscraftbeer]

There's probably a good reason there's no info. on the internet about it - fundamentally a bad idea.

With the exception of honey in beer (braggot), you're likely to end-up with a horrible, undrinkable mess.

Stick with one thing or the other.

$0.02

I'll easily fall into agreeing with this. Although there may be a rare combination technique that may work OK but sometimes things are best as being individual. Like you wouldn't combine a beautiful Thai curry dish with a beautiful Bolognese sauce. Expect it to taste just wrong.
Good beer, good Cider, for eg good as individuals but mix them together is bloody awful. Although there is a thing called Graf most people would never of heard of it for obvious reasons.