Here’s What You Should Know About The Art Of Beer Blending

Flickr/Sascha Wenninger/CC BY

Mixing alcohol seems taboo, but mixing beer is a whole other world. We know about cooking with beer and pairing different flavor profiles with different foods, but what about pairing beer with other beer?

Beer blending isn’t a new concept. The idea actually goes back centuries. In 18th-century London, the idea of blending brown ales with barrel-aged beers resulted in a tangy creation with all kinds of complex flavors. One of the most common beer blends is the black and tan, which marries dark stouts like Guinness with lagers or pale ales. With a black and tan, you get the light and easy aspect of the lager with the robust notes of the stout. Think about all the possibilities when you combine a sour beer with an IPA or a rich stout with a light citrusy beer.

A post shared by whiskydude (@whiskydude) on Nov 17, 2014 at 2:31pm PST

The idea of beer blending has become more mainstream to the point where a lot of restaurants and bars have their own specialty blends. When you go to liquor store, mix and match your beer and play scientist. Pick the most diverse batch of bottles you can find and see what kind of creations you can come up with. There aren’t any rules when it comes to blending, and it’s all about personal prefernce and balancing flavors. There is, however, such a thing as too much of a certain note, like when you’re pairing whiskey with what you’re eating. You wouldn’t mix smokey with smokey, you’d want a contrast. It’s the same with beer blending.

Flickr/Quinn Dombrowski/CC BY

Different Styles Of Beer Blending

Opportunistic Blending: This is a process that highlights the best qualities of a single batch of beer.

Mixed-Style Blending: Here’s the riskiest beer blending technique of them all. Mixed-style blending means combining beers of completely different styles to arrive at a unique, original and balanced beer.

Multi-Vintage Blending: The best of the different vintages, meaning the best of the young and the old, are mixed together in hopes of complimenting one another. A gueuze is a beer made from blending old lambics (a distinctly sour beer) that are up to three years old with new lambics that have recently finished with the fermentation process. A gueuze brings various vintages to their full potential.

Single Vintage Blending: Here’s where consistency matters. Often with single vintage blending, beers are created once a year using a trusted recipe and then barrel aged. The focus of each batch is consistency and not experimentation.

Beer blending isn’t just for experimenting and fun purposes. It’s also a solution for fixing beers that didn’t turn out right. Blending can give a crappy beer a whole new life. You could try mixing a nutty, malty brown ale with a sweet cider beer for a funky result. Strong and hoppy IPAs can work well with bright wheat beers. There are an infinite amount of combinations if you’re willing to get out of your comfort zone. At your next BBQ you could have a beer blending competition with your friends. See who comes up with winning recipe.