What's the publisher of a whiskey magazine doing speaking at a beer festival?

Talking about "one of the hottest new trends in the beer industry, beer blending."

That's the topic to be explored at Saturday's State College BrewExpo by John Hansell, creator of Malt Advocate, the "nation's leading magazine for the whisky enthusiast."

Of course, there's malt in beer, too, and Mr. Hansell knows his way around that subject, which is what he started writing about and still regularly covers for "All About Beer" magazine.

What's beer blending?

When breweries or bartenders or beer drinkers mix two or more beers to create a new taste. You've heard of a black and tan? That's a blend of stout and lager or ale.

But these days, folks are going way beyond that. At Fat Head's on the South Side, reports owner Glenn Benigni, they make "Haystacks" with witbier and raspberry lambic, and a "Chocolate Covered Raspberry" using Rogue Chocolate Stout and framboise.

"We have mixed double IPAs with imperial stouts in the past ...," he e-mails. "Every year when Sierra Nevada Bigfoot comes out, we mix that with Victory Storm King and call it a 'Storm Foot.' "

At Bocktown Beer and Grill in North Fayette, owner Chris Dilla says, "We do a 'Black Forest' regularly, which is a bit of Cherish Kriek and Atwater's Vanilla Java Porter. ... We have also mixed Blue Point Blueberry with Blue Point Oatmeal Stout -- it is a 'Beer Breakfast.' We have had many others ... If it sounds fun or funny we try it, and then if it tastes good, we feature it."

Someone has even come up with a blend of bitter and stout:

"The Mother-in-Law."

If this all sounds like an excuse to play in your beer, well, it is. You might come up with a taste that's really great.

"That's what makes it so much fun," says Mr. Hansell, who lives in Emmaus.

He says 95 percent of all scotch is blended. And, as he'll explain in his talk, brewers for centuries have been wedding styles and blending brews, as is the case with Belgian gueuze.

He realizes that some might feel a "sense of guilt" for blending two modern craft beers that are perfect on their own. But he's overcome that, playing on his home tap system, where he once combined the acclaimed Russian River Damnation Belgian-style strong golden ale and Lost Abbey Red Barn saison-style ale into what he dubbed "That Damned Red Barn."

"It was delicious," he says; the brewers still speak to him.

In fact, as he'll describe in his seminar, some brewers are collaborating on blends, as California's Russian River and Colorado's Avery did to settle the fact that they both were making brews called "Salvation." They blended them and sell it as "Collaboration Not Litigation Ale."

Other brewers are bottling their own blends, such as Delaware's Dogfish Head has done with its limited-release Red & White, a blend of Belgian-style wit, some aged in pinot noir barrels and some in virgin oak.

Mr. Hansell will give tastes of various blends he's bringing, including some rare surprises.

He thinks blending is a natural progression for creative types. "I'm seeing some of this now by the cutting-edge people. I just hope that it continues."

Two other seminars are part of the 10th annual State College MicroBrewers & Importers Exposition, which is broken into two tasting sessions -- noon to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m. -- at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. Admission is $40 per session per person and includes a buffet and a souvenir glass. For details: www.scbrewexpo.com or 1-814-237-4350.

First Published: July 25, 2007, 7:45 p.m.