I was just doing some prep-cooking for tomorrow and poured myself a glass of wine. A cheap and delicious 60cab/40merlot. As I was swigging it and chopping vegetables, it occurred to me that I had some 1554 Porter in the fridge from a New Belgium variety pack I bought awhile back. I generally don’t care for porter so there it has sat and there it would sit, if not for . . .
Quite some time ago I was in a trendy little wine bar where the bartender was mixing beer and wine and calling them, if my memory serves me, “French Umbrellas.”
I decided to open a bottle of the 1554 and pour it in my glass.
It was quite good!
Almost like a chocolate sangria, very lightly carbonated.
I haven’t, but it sounds intriguing. I’ve done this with wine to wine, mixing small amounts of different whites into whites, reds into whites, etc and tasting them, but never beer into wine.
I would imagine that starting with a beer of high quality and deep flavors would engender a successful experiment.
Dogfish Head has tried a similar concept with Belgian white beer and pinot noir grapes. I’ve never tried it at home with a dark beer and a wine, but I can see it working in my head – I’ve had porters or stouts flavored with different kinds of berries, so why not grapes?