Mixing Beers

[gunbrew]

Opinions on if the below was a wise move or potential 23 litre fcuk up from the perspective of mixing beer?

My current set up is 2 x 23 litre kegs.
Plan to have both kegs running this weekend at a gathering.
I had one keg cleaned and ready to fill.
The other still had about 8L left of Bitter @ 8%, that I had really been enjoying.
Plan was to bottle the last 8L to free up the keg.
Friday night after 2 pints of 8% whilst filling Keg 1 I decided to mix my new batch with the 8 litres of Bitter still in Keg 2.
After 2 pints it seemed an awesome idea....

The 50L batch ready to keg, Used 2 x 4.5L Quick brews, one pilsner and one aussie blonde, with malt and Amarillo finishing hops all from the brew shop.
So the 50L batch was already a mix of 2 styles.

Keg 1 is the Pilsner/Aussie Blonde brew @5%alc.
Keg 2 is 1/3 Bitter and 2/3 Pilsner/Aussie Blonde @6% approx.

Force carbed over the weekend.
Sampled Keg 2 last night and it is very nice to my great relief as by saturday morning concern was growing over my experiment.

Does anyone mix different batches and styles of beer together?
If so what do you do?

 

[joecast]

only time i have mixed so far was from two different beers into the glass. once you have two separate beers mixed in one keg, you're stuck with however it turns out (hopefully good). if the mix is not so good...

i think you're initial idea of bottling the 8L to empty the keg would have been the safest move, albeit most time consuming. then you could have mixed at different ratios or not at all.

if i were going to mix two beers into one keg, i would probably try to keep to the same style or at least same 'family' (ie mix a pale ale with an amber or ipa, not pale lager and stout). anyway, it sounds like it turned out ok for you and now you've got two full kegs to work on at your gathering. :chug: :chug:
joe

 

[Scruffy]

Does anyone mix different batches and styles of beer together?
If so what do you do?

Black and Tan?

 

[EK]

At the time of posting Zymurgy had an article online called The Art of Blending Beer: http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/zymurg...line_extra.html.

Might be useful

:icon_cheers:
EK

 

[brettprevans]

search for mongrel kegs. quite a few brewers will have a mongrel of left overs keg going for the exact reason you've stated. sometimes it hit and miss and sometimes its magic from all accounts. havent had to do it yet.

 

[Bribie G]

Some UK breweries blend beer. Newcastle brown, traditionally, has been a blend of Newcastle Amber Ale that used to be sold separately in bottles, and a stronger brown ale that was not sold commercially. Don't know if they still do that at the Dunston brewery since they moved production. Brains of Cardiff blend a cask beer from their Special Ale and their dark that is distributed to parts of the Welsh Valleys.

 

[LLoyd]

combined a couple of beers one night, and chucked it a few bottles of LCPA for good measure. Seemed like the thing to do at the time, as it does... :chug:

 

[Tony M]

I mix all the time. If I need a keg or fridge space that is being occupied by a lousy 3 or 4 litres of beer I transfer to a partially full keg by using a length of PVC tube that is a diameter that fits tightly into the beer tap then pump it across in a couple of minutes. Also, being a none too proficient brewer, I sometimes end up with something that is too bitter/bland/strong/weak/etc/etc and by blending, can usually come up with a satisfactory quaffer.

 

[Katherine]

Its how Porter came about...3 beers blended!

 

[manticle]

I've only ever blended very similar beers due to something like over bittering (same grain bill in both, different hopping schedule).

That's not to say it wouldn't work but I'd be thinking about it first. Mixing willy nilly doesn't grab me - I wouldn't put rosemary lamb with asian char grilled pork just to make room in my fridge.

I guess the proof is in the pint glass though.