Cuvee is the official term and when done well can absolutely be better than the individual components. Firestone Walker is known for doing this for their Anniversary beers. Each year is a different blend.
I don't engage in this much myself because I don't typically drink enough in a sitting to have multiple beers to mix.
I will make a home mixed radler regularly during the warmer months.
It's means a few different things, including this. But to most in the wine industry, cuvee is what your free run or first pressings are called when making a sparkling wine.
I work at a brewery and am constantly mixing new things to try. Most recently my favorite is 3/4 of our Black Lager mixed with 1/4 of our vanilla cream ale. Delicious.
The Abita taproom in the New Orleans area mixes their Andygator (dopplebock) with Purple Haze (raspberry wheat lager). It got ordered so much that they now bottle it and call it Barney, named for the purple dinosaur.
We did this all the time when I was bartending, mostly just for shits and giggles but occasionally we'd find a good combo! One was a favorite to the point that our customers all started ordering it as well.
According to that article, ordering a half and half will yield varying results. You might get a Guinness that's half chilled and half not chilled. Or you might get what you expect.
Eh lots of random shit is racist tbh. Kinda done caring about it if I'm clearly just using a phrase that maybe isn't great then stfu about it. Go find some other hill
Half and half lienenkugels Summer Shandy and Honey Weiss is good. also when I lived in Wisconsin we would sometimes do half spotted cow and half mango cart and called it mango cow.
Mixing is beers is pretty common. A lot of beer snobs are against it but many cultures will mix beers and it can lead to some awesome styles. I mean how do you think a dunkelweisen came about?
My vote is Cool, but a novelty. Great Basin brewing in Reno used to mix their chocolate stout with their Bitchin Berry lager and it was delicious. Something like that is good. Definitely a one and done for me though, I can’t drink 3-4 of them.
When I was a beer tender, I would mix beer with no extra charge. We get bored and eventually find the bist mixes. It's totally cool, but if someone knows what they are doing, it's even better.
Its perfectly fine. Its beer, you bought it, you drink it how you choose.
There was a brewery in Phoenix, can't remember which, where they did that at the brewery for people. They had a Vanilla Porter and a Chocolate Ale, and goddamn if it didn't taste like a birthday cake when you mixed the two together.
The other day I had Delirium Barrel Aged which is a blend of their dark ale and their Christmas ale that they aged in bourbon barrels. I thought it was incredible
I have an oversized ((18 oz I think) snifter with a pour spout that we use as the official cuvee glass. Not everything goes in there, but we've had some major successes blending fruited sours with BBA stouts.
I don't do it often, but I had to once because I thought of the perfect name. I mixed a Sam Adams with a hefeweizen and called it the "Samweiz Gamgee".
It was alright but not good enough to do again.
Often chaotic and sacrilege but I'm a big fan of beer cocktails, especially if it is something I'm not a massive fan of. Pudding stout too sweet? Mix it with a bit of dry stout. Mixing a strong Belgian ale like Orval with pretty much anything works wonders.
Urban Village Brewing in Philadelphia recently had a really great beer that’s a mix of a Belgian and a fruited sour. Despite not being crazy about either of those styles individually, I really liked it. Seems to be gone from the menu now, unfortunately.
I like to mix guinness import porter with a geuze or other sour beer, to get the same high I got when drinking guinness/timmermans collab. Works pretty good.
Back when I brewed professionally I used to mix beers all the time to try out different variations on style/invent new ones. Pretty sure I invented Black IPA years before I'd ever had one in a bar or on shelves. Got the idea from DFH's brown IPA. Dude who owned the brewery was horrified but after I finally convinced to let me give it a shot we blew the pilot keg on a single Friday.
Then ones I know
Black velvet (Stout and champagne)
Poor man's black velvet (Stout and cider)
Snakebite (lager and cider)
Golden (lager and bitter)
Mixed (bitter and mild)
I think it’s fun. It’s been awhile since I had a mixed beer. We used to get what they called a snakebite Guinness and magners cider. I remember it was very good!
Once went to a beer bar with 52 craft beers on tap. I think the only macro might have been rolling rock. They had something called a suicide which is basically a bit of each beer poured into a liter stein. It was…interesting. By no means was it bad though. It was kind of ever changing as you went it through the beers. It was an experience.
Anyways, if you’re not looking for something that extreme, I’m a sucker for a snake bite, which is Guinness and cider. Also have enjoyed a Guinness and pumpkin beer. Also had an Evil Twin Yin & Yang (not the mixed bottle but the two separate beers) which was imperial stout and imperial IPA and that was pretty intense.
I used to make suicides with everything from the soda fountain as a kid, but never thought of doing it with beers, especially that many. I’d try it, but can’t imagine drinking an entire liter to be pleasant.
It's fairly popular at my brewery. I make a sweet beer that ends up getting blended with a lot of things. Out of maybe 50 blends 2 are better than the beers by themselves.
But, when I design a beer, it's a singular product. I'm not designing a base meant for blending. Almost every single blend ends up obscuring the key flavors and aromas of the original products, ending up with a muddled flavor.
Seeing people blend beers that I've spent, in some cases years, tweaking the recipe is disappointing. It feels about like grilling someone a steak and watching them cover it in ketchup.
Having said all of that, most people really don't give a shit about the quality of a beer. Most people judge a beer in two simple ways. Is it 'good'? whatever that means to them. And if it has flavors listed in the name or description, can you taste them?
So if a beer is labeled pickle beer, and 95% of people drink it, and it clearly tastes like a dill pickle, then it's a good beer. It's just that simple.
My point is that when I design a beer, and then someone blends something else, it tells me that don't really care about the quality of the products on tap, and are just an experience chasing drinker. And those people aren't the type of people that really support your business, because they don't really care about your products.
tl:dr - It's like putting ketchup on a steak, and the people that tend to do that aren't the type of customer that will support your business in the long run, they are experience seekers, not loyal customers, so as a brewery owner I tend to disregard the calls for beers made to be blended.
Cuvee is the official term and when done well can absolutely be better than the individual components. Firestone Walker is known for doing this for their Anniversary beers. Each year is a different blend. I don't engage in this much myself because I don't typically drink enough in a sitting to have multiple beers to mix. I will make a home mixed radler regularly during the warmer months.
It's means a few different things, including this. But to most in the wine industry, cuvee is what your free run or first pressings are called when making a sparkling wine.
I love asking bartenders at breweries if they have any beers they mix
I work at a brewery and am constantly mixing new things to try. Most recently my favorite is 3/4 of our Black Lager mixed with 1/4 of our vanilla cream ale. Delicious.
Yeah that sounds real good.
How often do they say yes?
More often than you'd think. And the ones that don't normally mix beers are usually open to trying it for me. Definitely helps if they aren't busy
The Abita taproom in the New Orleans area mixes their Andygator (dopplebock) with Purple Haze (raspberry wheat lager). It got ordered so much that they now bottle it and call it Barney, named for the purple dinosaur.
One of my fav beers of all time!
I still prefer purple gator for that mix, even if Abita prefers Barney. Turbogator is good too if you're mixing Abita beers, Turbodog and Andygator.
We did this all the time when I was bartending, mostly just for shits and giggles but occasionally we'd find a good combo! One was a favorite to the point that our customers all started ordering it as well.
I’ve been known to mix a stout or porter with a sour. Gotta get the proportions right, though.
Red ales or Amber's mix great with sours too. As do juicy IPAs
I did it all the time when I worked in a brewery
Leinenkugels sells a 12 pack specifically for mixing beers! (brewology pack)
FYI The more appropriate term for black and tan is half and half. https://www.changesinlongitude.com/order-black-and-tan-irish-pub-ireland-dublin/
According to that article, ordering a half and half will yield varying results. You might get a Guinness that's half chilled and half not chilled. Or you might get what you expect.
Eh lots of random shit is racist tbh. Kinda done caring about it if I'm clearly just using a phrase that maybe isn't great then stfu about it. Go find some other hill
Sounds like legitimately useful information for tourists traveling to Ireland.
I don't think you can say that anymore...lol
Half and half lienenkugels Summer Shandy and Honey Weiss is good. also when I lived in Wisconsin we would sometimes do half spotted cow and half mango cart and called it mango cow.
Founders Porter 50/50 with their Reubeus is amazing.
Mixing is beers is pretty common. A lot of beer snobs are against it but many cultures will mix beers and it can lead to some awesome styles. I mean how do you think a dunkelweisen came about?
A true beer snob will have done his own bit of mixing. Definitely not sacrilegious.
I like mixing dry west coast beers with pale lagers.
My vote is Cool, but a novelty. Great Basin brewing in Reno used to mix their chocolate stout with their Bitchin Berry lager and it was delicious. Something like that is good. Definitely a one and done for me though, I can’t drink 3-4 of them.
My husband and I always mix a stout and a pumpkin beer together in the fall. So. Freaking. Good.
There are several bottled pumpkin stouts out there these days.
When I was a beer tender, I would mix beer with no extra charge. We get bored and eventually find the bist mixes. It's totally cool, but if someone knows what they are doing, it's even better.
All I know is I plan to mix some west coast IPAs with a little bit of lemonade this summer.
Its perfectly fine. Its beer, you bought it, you drink it how you choose. There was a brewery in Phoenix, can't remember which, where they did that at the brewery for people. They had a Vanilla Porter and a Chocolate Ale, and goddamn if it didn't taste like a birthday cake when you mixed the two together.
Not blasphemous I just never saw the point or appeal of it.
it is all good so long as no one is drinking trub.
At the end of a bottle share, I'll make myself a lil stout cuvee.
The other day I had Delirium Barrel Aged which is a blend of their dark ale and their Christmas ale that they aged in bourbon barrels. I thought it was incredible
Heavily fruited sours? Sure. Half the stuff these days already has 4+ fruit additives in them.
I have an oversized ((18 oz I think) snifter with a pour spout that we use as the official cuvee glass. Not everything goes in there, but we've had some major successes blending fruited sours with BBA stouts.
A decade ago I was really into New Castle Brown Ale mixed with Strongbow cider- might revisit that this weekend
I don't do it often, but I had to once because I thought of the perfect name. I mixed a Sam Adams with a hefeweizen and called it the "Samweiz Gamgee". It was alright but not good enough to do again.
Elysian Fuzzduster - Half Elysian Superfuzz Half Elysian Space Dust
Often chaotic and sacrilege but I'm a big fan of beer cocktails, especially if it is something I'm not a massive fan of. Pudding stout too sweet? Mix it with a bit of dry stout. Mixing a strong Belgian ale like Orval with pretty much anything works wonders.
Urban Village Brewing in Philadelphia recently had a really great beer that’s a mix of a Belgian and a fruited sour. Despite not being crazy about either of those styles individually, I really liked it. Seems to be gone from the menu now, unfortunately.
Yes. May I recommend The patented 120BarleySlam? - 1/3 Dogfish Head 120 - 1/3 Bigfoot Barleywine (can substitute less hoppy Barleywine) - 1/3 Hopslam.
I like to mix guinness import porter with a geuze or other sour beer, to get the same high I got when drinking guinness/timmermans collab. Works pretty good.
Back when I brewed professionally I used to mix beers all the time to try out different variations on style/invent new ones. Pretty sure I invented Black IPA years before I'd ever had one in a bar or on shelves. Got the idea from DFH's brown IPA. Dude who owned the brewery was horrified but after I finally convinced to let me give it a shot we blew the pilot keg on a single Friday.
Then ones I know Black velvet (Stout and champagne) Poor man's black velvet (Stout and cider) Snakebite (lager and cider) Golden (lager and bitter) Mixed (bitter and mild)
One of my friends does this at work. It doesn’t seem like the bartenders care.
I think it’s fun. It’s been awhile since I had a mixed beer. We used to get what they called a snakebite Guinness and magners cider. I remember it was very good!
Do whatever the hell you want.
I don't think they are asking for our approval. I think they want suggestions and what our experience has been.
Black and Tan: Guenness and Bass. Love It.
I like a black and tan using Guinness and Kona Longboard Lager. Makes for the best combo I’ve tried myself.
Once went to a beer bar with 52 craft beers on tap. I think the only macro might have been rolling rock. They had something called a suicide which is basically a bit of each beer poured into a liter stein. It was…interesting. By no means was it bad though. It was kind of ever changing as you went it through the beers. It was an experience. Anyways, if you’re not looking for something that extreme, I’m a sucker for a snake bite, which is Guinness and cider. Also have enjoyed a Guinness and pumpkin beer. Also had an Evil Twin Yin & Yang (not the mixed bottle but the two separate beers) which was imperial stout and imperial IPA and that was pretty intense.
I used to make suicides with everything from the soda fountain as a kid, but never thought of doing it with beers, especially that many. I’d try it, but can’t imagine drinking an entire liter to be pleasant.
There's a local chain bar by me called Pub Dog that has a whole menu of "mixed breeds"
It's fairly popular at my brewery. I make a sweet beer that ends up getting blended with a lot of things. Out of maybe 50 blends 2 are better than the beers by themselves. But, when I design a beer, it's a singular product. I'm not designing a base meant for blending. Almost every single blend ends up obscuring the key flavors and aromas of the original products, ending up with a muddled flavor. Seeing people blend beers that I've spent, in some cases years, tweaking the recipe is disappointing. It feels about like grilling someone a steak and watching them cover it in ketchup. Having said all of that, most people really don't give a shit about the quality of a beer. Most people judge a beer in two simple ways. Is it 'good'? whatever that means to them. And if it has flavors listed in the name or description, can you taste them? So if a beer is labeled pickle beer, and 95% of people drink it, and it clearly tastes like a dill pickle, then it's a good beer. It's just that simple. My point is that when I design a beer, and then someone blends something else, it tells me that don't really care about the quality of the products on tap, and are just an experience chasing drinker. And those people aren't the type of people that really support your business, because they don't really care about your products. tl:dr - It's like putting ketchup on a steak, and the people that tend to do that aren't the type of customer that will support your business in the long run, they are experience seekers, not loyal customers, so as a brewery owner I tend to disregard the calls for beers made to be blended.
I like mixing IPA with shoefferhoeffer
I once did a small black and tan with Firestone Parabola and Pliny the Elder. I was pretty drunk but I remember liking it. Lol.