The Indulgence Blend

This is a blend that rivals the "Sex on the Shortbus" - in flavor as well as in challenge. Today, after a huge, delicious Thanksgiving meal (I loooove that brined turkey!!) I decided that a proper digestiv was in order. Last year I had squirreled away some bottles of Bell's Expedition Stout, and then last spring I got some bottles of Dogfish Head's 120 Minute IPA. So I went down to my beer cooler and got a bottle of each of these delicious, slightly aged beers. I tasted each separately, then I blended them. They separated nicely, with the stout, again, dropping to bottom.

These two intense beers blend to a complex synergy of huge, mocha-caramel maltyness and in-yer-face bitter hoppyness, tied together by their sweet undercurrents (in the case of the "IPA" the sweetness is still almost a rip tide) and "tight" alcoholic nose. And. A. Long. Looooong. F.i.n.i.s.h.

After a year, the stout is settling down (I had some of this year's batch earlier this week) but the 120 Min IPA is still impatient and fresh after 6 months. I'll have another one a year from now :)

Maybe I should call this the "Patience Blend" ...

Coffee Monster

Shopping for nutritious refreshments for this Thanksgiving Holiday, I came upon Terrapin's Monster Beer Tour at Sam's Blue Light. I procured two 4-packs - Wake 'N' Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout and Big Hoppy Monster - both beers packed with flavor but not excessive on Alcohol (7.5 and 8 ABV, respectively). After enjoying half a pint of the happy Hoppy Monster (a big, overhopped red ale), I poured some of the stout in that glass, only to watch the thick creamy stuff drop to the bottom of the glass like a rock.

The resulting blend is remarkable: complicated, flavorful (to say the least) and a bit nervous. It retains the stout's strong alcohol, big malts, and adds the monster's bitter, immensly enjoyable hops bite. Not an easy alliance, but it does hang together, in the end, especially if you go easy on the stout.

Both good beers, but I think I'll hang on to a couple of bottles each, give them some time to see what happens. They both feel a bit fresh. I noticed the same thing with the Brooklyn Chocolate Stout. Good beer, but give it 10+ months and it turns into a great beer ...

Spontaneous Rogue Blendfest

At the end of the afternoon there stood 2 empty bombers, one empty 12-ounce bottle, and 3 very satisfied, rather wobbly beer blenders. We entertained a guest beer blender on Friday who instigated the day's roguishness, and neither of us can thank Bill enough for that - there was not a failed blend on the day.

First came Rogue's Imperial Red Ale, in the impressive black ceramic bomber. 9% ABV with an alcohol-sweet, malty character, this impressive ale practically screamed "blend me!" So we did. With the old standby, The Nectar from Camel City. Yovo took the bottle first, painstakingly (and slowly!) layering the blend with the Imperial Amber floating atop the Double IPA, as Bill and I sipped our Seeing Double pints down to the mid-glass blending level. I was not so patient with the pour, and added the Imperial Red at a pace sufficient to thoroughly mix the beers in my pint glass.

All agreed this was a fantastic blend, with the sweetness of the Red balancing extremely well with the characteristic Seeing Double hopsmack. As we savored the blend, Dain suggested adding a small dose (maybe 2 or 3 ounces) of Foothills' Total Eclipse Stout into the mix. We did. Fantasic quickly morphed into outstanding as the hearty stout managed to absorb some of the Red Ale's sweetness while at the same time countering the DIPA's hop bitterness. This was our first ever tri-blend, and we believe we have crafted a true winner.

Next came a bomber of Rogue's Double Dead Guy, a special one-time-release of this American doppelbock. Yovo and I had tasted this one before, but Bill had not, so we all enjoyed a few sips straight-up. Damn tasty stuff. Malty like a good doppelbock should be, but with a slight twinge of hops. A little out of character in a doppelbock, but we had no complaints. So... what to blend with it?

Yovo elected to enjoy his straight-up, and good for him. But being good little hopheads, Bill and I settled on Victory's Hop Wallop to up the bitterness ante. Of course, I was slightly intoxicated by the time this blend came to me, so I don't have much to say about it. It was a malty doppelbock mixed with a very hoppy ale, and that's what it tasted like. Not as good as the Imperial Red with Seeing Double and Total Eclipse, but certainly no slouch, and *definitely* not a failed blend.

I hope we'll be taking Bill to lunch with us more often.

Shortbuspallooza

The Shortbus. Our classic beer blend. How about a Shortbus party?!

Earlier this year, I found out - through well-informed channels - that our local purveyor of fine beers (Sam's Blue Light) had a couple of sixth-barrel kegs of Old Rasputin in the cooler. I was further informed that the kegs were going on 2 years old, and that they were available for a rather modest sum for purchase ($75). Without hesitation I paid a visit to Sam's and aquired one of said kegs.

So, as Halloween rolled around, I procured a pony keg of Foothill's finest Seeing Double IPA at the same establishment and hauled it home, just in time for our annual Halloween Party. I proceeded to cut open a steel barrel and carefully placed the two keg inside, filling the rest of this improvised "kegorator" with ice. I will always cherish the memory of that first pint of "Shortbus on Tap" ... and the second ... and the third ... and then my memory does get a bit blurry ...

The party was fun, and the beer drinkers present made a valiant effort. But 10 gallons (40 liters) of +9% ABV beer - that's a lot! But fear not! I filled some growlers and then my friend Bruce came to the rescue - with a keg and a CO2 bottle (he is an avid and very talented homebrewer). We filled the remaining 2-3 Gallons of Old Rasputin in his keg, and bottled the remaining Seeing Double in three 2-liter soda bottles and charged them with CO2. That'll keep the beer in good shape for a while, as we enjoy the occasional shortbus on tap at home.

Sex on the Shortbus

This is it. We might as well stop right here.

We believe we have found the ultimate beer blend, and we are worried that everything else will just fall short.

At the World Beer Fest in Durham (which was SUCH a happy place :)) the Shortbus meister and I made Jamie (Foothills' brewmeister par excellence) blend - in our little sample glasses - their two best beers: Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout and Seeing Double IPA.

Aaahhhhh!!!! We named it Sex on the Shortbus. And it was damn good!!

What a mouthfull. Thousands of years of evolution and finally - the finest fermented beverage ever. This divine blend fills your palate with a barrage of flavors.

However - fear not. Probably we we will continue our exploits. There are so many more beers to blend. Who knows - maybe we'll find an even better blend. I doubt it, but who knows.

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft

See, I had this partykeg of Spaten in my beerfridge, and it had been "aging" for about a year. It's Labor Day Weekend and earlier today, after three hours of "open heart surgery" on our file server at work, I thought it was time to tap that little party keg to make sure it was still good. And boy was it ever still good. Nice crisp, malty Bavarian lager.

Of course I am a bit of a hop-head, and thusly I happen to own a couple of bombers of Great Divide's finest Hercules Double IPA. That's a suck-your-face-out hop-lovers nirvana of a beer.

So you can guess where I am going with this - I blended the two - about 2/3 Spaten 1/3 Hercules. Very VERY tasty. The maltyness of the Spaten still comes out nice and big at first, but then the hops kicks in and takes over to a looong, pleasantly bitter finish. Nice, friendly German American blend - hence the name German American Friendship.

SUPERFAIL!

The first beer/tequila mix went so well, I thought I'd try it again. I shouldn't have.

We mixed the latest from Clipper City's Heavy Seas line - their 10% Unfiltered Weizen Dopplebock called Hang Ten - with a shot of Patrón Silver. The mix was 1:1. It was an abomination. We resisted the urge to up the ratio of beer to tequila for fear we'd just be making more of this vomitous substance, and we'd be responsible for drinking it.

The beer on its own is decent enough, if you go for that yeasty sweet high gravity wheat flavor. And of course the Patrón is a perfectly cromulent tequila when enjoyed without the aforementioned yeasty sweet high gravity wheat flavor. But they don't mix well. Not even a little.

Readers will be happy to know that both yovo and I survived the ordeal, washing the failure down with a pint each of the nectar from Camel City.

Fail. Blah!

As a beer blender, I certainly look for tasty blends - blends that add an interesting experience to enjoying a fine craft beer individually. And sometimes I like to live dangerously.

The other day, I felt like taking a risk, and blended Bell's Expedition Stout with Triangle Brewery's Belgian Golden. Think "coffee and citrus" - FAIL! Not good. Don't do it.

Honestly - I did not have much confidence in this, so I just used a small glass. But I did finish that.
Blah.

Wow - they blend better than crabs and cheddar!

This Tuesday was a quick and dirty beer blending day. Yovo had a meeting and couldn't make it down to Doctor Phelanstein's Lab (aka Dain's Place) with me. In reality, I think he was afraid someone would make him drink more of that Triangle Belgian/Seeing Double concoction he created last week. ;-)

I settled on a "traditional" half and half, with a stout and an ale. Only I chose an imperial stout and an India Pale Ale. The stout came from Baltimore - Peg Leg Imperial Stout from Clipper City's always-impressive Heavy Seas line. This dark beauty weighs in at 8.0% ABV, and has a delicious dark chocolate/coffee flavor that lingers on the tongue. For the ale, I chose Wolaver's Imperial Pale Ale from Otter Creek in Vermont. Part of the Organic Ales lineup, this is a wonderfully drinkable IPA - tart, tangy and refreshingly crisp. And it's organic, for what that's worth. At least they don't market it as free range beer.

I couldn't get the blend to separate. Granted, I didn't try very hard. These two beers seem to have a close affinity for one another. And with good cause - the blend is delicious. All of the thick rich flavor of the Peg Leg is apparent from the moment the first drop hits the tongue, but with an added semi-bitter bite from the Wolaver's. Then in a minor miracle of beerblending chemistry, the Peg Leg aftertaste gives way almost completely to the crisp hoppiness of the IPA. Like scraping your tongue with bittersweet chocolate, and then licking a grapefruit rind. But good.

Nobody was around to verify my take on this blend but Dain, and he was on duty so he could only sample a minuscule straw-full, but he agreed it was tasty. And he's not even a hophead! I'm not sure how to rate this one, given the lack of a coherent rating system, so I'll say it gets a gold star sticker and a smiley face. If only the Wolaver's was a high-gravity beer, I'd add a plus sign. And maybe a check mark. Long story shorter - it's good.

Double Trouble - Blending Two Local Favorites

Today at Dain's Place on 9th St. I was, as usual, mostly surrounded by IPA drinkers (and a Tequila aficionado) so when I suggested blending Foothill's Seeing Double IPA with Durham's own witbeer, the Triangle Brewery's Belgian Golden, I just got shit from everyone.

Even Oz hesitated, but then he did his duty. I mean, I take this seriously. I want danger and adventure. Shortbus blended the Seeing Double with a ... Pale Ale. Daring today, aren't we!!

Anyway. It worked great. Sure, it's a bit out there, but it works. The Belgian Golden really holds its own against the hops onslaught from the Seeing Double. The Golden brings its Belgian-style fruity yeasts to bear, and they clash a bit, but they work it out. This is not for the faint-of-heart, but it's a keeper for a real beer blender.

Tuesday Afternoon - not the damned Moody Blues song.

Lunch at Dain's Place. Beer mixing.

So after a warm-up shortbus, we decided we'd try Highland's Gaelic Ale mixed with Flying Dog's Gonzo Porter. The Gaezo, as it came to be known, was disappointing. Highland just doesn't have the cojones/gravitas/flavor to hold its own against the Gonzo. It drank like watered-down Gonzo. In other words, meh - not so good. But that's life in the beer blending biz. Shite or gold, we mix it, we drink it, and we report the results to you.

After that disappointment, Dain suggested Flying Dog's own Kerberos Tripel as a worthy counterpoint to the Gonzo. Yovo and I were in no mood to argue (actually we were in more of a mood to drink), so we agreed. This is a more interesting blend. The Gonzo's bitter chocolate and sweet malty flavor yielded to the almost overpowering alcohol sweetness of the Kerberos Tripel. We both ended up adding more Gonzo to the mix to account for the out-of-balance flavor. It worked well. All things considered, it lacks the hop profile to which I have become accustomed, but makes for a smooth, eminently drinkable, relatively high-gravity mix. Well worth trying, although not serious competition to the original shortbus for magical deliciosity.

Born at the Rusty Ozfest - Expedición Café

I knew Oz brought the Patrón XO Café for a reason...

Sometime in between bands my remaining ounce of Patrón XO coffee-infused tequila, and most of Corinna's two ounces, found their way to the bottom of a pint glass, where they were joined by the contents of Dain's last bottle of Bell's Expedition stout. The chocolaty head just reached the tip of the glass, and the aroma was nothing short of amazing. Malty cocoa stout with a strong dose of coffee, finished off with an unmistakably "tequilesque" zing to the sinuses.

The flavor was fantastic, even if the drink itself was somewhat heavy for a hot summer night. Hell, it might be a bit heavy for the coldest of winter nights. I'm pretty sure this stuff could stand upright on its own without the glass. This is definitely one to enjoy by the ounce, not by the pint. I can't be bothered to do the math in figuring out the alcohol content of the mix, but the Expedition on its own is 10.5%, and the Patrón XO weighs in at 35%.

As this is my first experiment with beer/liquor blending, it goes without saying that it's the best such mix I've ever had. I was singing its praises while it was ringing my bell, and I can't wait to try it again. In moderation.

The Shortbus

This is our original blended beer - the Shortbus.

This is still the best! You pour a half pint of Foothill's Seeing Double IPA and then carefully layer North Coast's Old Rasputin Imperial Stout on top.

Dan came up with this one last fall, and this was so good that it encouraged us to try other blends of high-quality beers. They don't have to layer as nicely as this one does. These two beers do separate exceptionally well.

These two beers are both aggressive, huge and very potent brews. The Old Rasputin gives you a mouthful of complex, rich malt flavors - chocolate, coffee, caramel - and then the Seeing Double slaps you upside your head with its massive, complex hops profile. It's quite amazing how neither beer dominates the combination. They complement each other nicely and the blend is tied together by both beer's subtle, but distinctive fruity sweetness and the anything-but-subtle alcohol (both just over ABV 9).

This is our original beer blend, and it is still my favorite. Based on this, we were encouraged to experiment with blending other beers to find other compelling combinations. It might not always be easy to find some of these beers (Foothills only distributes in NC at this time). And some of the blends we explore might be a bit - uh - risky. But it's all good fun. And never boring. Remember: Life is too short to drink just one beer at a time.

Blend Beer

American brewers have gone completely mad. They dump their entire stock of hops into a beer (Hop Shortage Ale). They age beer in unpitched wooden casks (Palo Santo Marron, Heresy). They use weird ingredients like apricots (Aprihop), honey (Hopslam), raisins (Raison D'etre) or chrysanthemum flowers (Chateau Jiahu). Are all of these strange brews really technically "beer?" Who cares? But since some American brewers are certifiably off the deep end, we decided to up the ante and start blending beers.

So on this page you'll be able to find out what happens when you blend a Palo Santo with a Seeing Double, or Double Dog with a Heresy, without endangering your own health. Enjoy!