With the weather warming up for the weekend, I thought writing about the “beer float” idea would be appropriate. This idea of a beer float (beer and ice cream) has probably been around for ages but it has recently come known to me from a news article and a sampling at a local grocery store. Though I was intrigued with the news article, the sampling at the grocery store sealed the deal. When my girlfriend’s eyes lit up after trying the sample, I knew a four pack of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout and a quart of French vanilla ice cream had just been added to the grocery list. Lets see if the “beer float” is better then “beer nog“.

The recipe I tried for the beer float is pretty straight forward. Add a few scoops of vanilla ice cream to a pint glass (or mug), pour Young’s Double Chocolate Stout over said ice cream, and serve. First without the ice cream the Young’s pours a dark black, with a small, dense layer of cream colored head on top. The smell is heavily chocolate with some burnt undertones. The taste is just like the smell, heavy with chocolate with some lingering burnt taste at the back of the mouth. One surprising thing about the drink was its mouth feel. I was expecting a fuller/heavier mouth feel, with its dark body and dense head, not the medium one I encountered. None-the-less, it went down smooth, and I would have no problem drinking the beer again.

Next was trying the beer with the French vanilla ice cream. The beer and ice cream swirled together to make a very interesting looking concoction. The taste was still heavy on the chocolate but the burnt aspect disappeared and was replaced with the vanilla falvoring of the ice cream. My girlfriend thought the ice cream enhanced the flavoring of the chocolate to be even more noticable, she was quite pleased with this. The biggest change between the straight beer and beer float, was the mouth feel. As one would expect the ice cream made the drink much heavier, easily coating the inside of my mouth. This allowed the chocolate and vanilla tastes to linger in my mouth for a good few seconds after each sip. One of these chocolate vanilla beer floats was quite filling and there was no need (nor could I imagine) having a second one in one sitting.

With the chocolate vanilla float being a success I decided to try my hand at a Lindemans Framboise Lambic (Ben’s review) and vanilla float (as mentioned in the article). I personally was not as enamoured with this combination as with the chocolate/ vanilla one. Though I don’t mind the sweet tartness of the Framboise at times, it was a little too much for me. Maybe the float needed more ice cream and less beer, or a different type of vanilla ice cream (the article used malted vanilla), I’m not really sure. A great aspect of the beer float however, is how easy it is to experiment with (dropping some ice cream in a glass and pouring beer over it does not take all that much time).

Though the chocolate/vanilla beer float was more of a success, I was still pleased with both out comes. The beer float idea definitely gets my stamp of approval. They are easy to make, they can taste good, and they make a rather impressive looking dessert (for all those dinner guests you want to impress). Feel free to post any great beer float recipes in the comments. Happy experimenting.

Author: Dave
Categories: Beer Reviews, Lambic, Stout, Young's
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Right now I’m in the mood to drink but not review, fortunately I don’t feel compelled to write a lot about this is brew. All of the barley wines (among the best: Sierra’s Nevada’s Bigfoot Ale, Stone’s Old Guardian, and Laquinita’s Gnarly Wine) I have had have been very big, powerful beers so I expected I would have to take my time to finish this the Old Nick. Nope! This deep ruby colored liquid is puny compared to its aforementioned bretheren, frankly its doesn’t even seem like a barley wine. The chocolate and toffe flavors remind me more of a stout. There is some fruity sweetness, tastes like cherries, and a slight hop burn that separates it from the stout family. It lacks the bite, or should I say punch in the face that my palate recognizes as a distiguishing characteristic of this style ale. All that being said this beer is easy on the palate, although there is nothing outstanding that would make me suggest you rush out and get some.

Author: Matt
Categories: Barleywine Ale, Beer Reviews, Young's
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Okay, friends! Finally, a hefeweizen worth drinking! I tell you what, I’ve had a number of hefeweizens lately, most of which were mediocre in a good way, but very few that made me really lick my lips and ogle at the glass in sheer admiration. I think this is mainly because most of my recent hefes have been of the American variety. This hefe, although American in origin, is done in the Bavarian style, and that makes all the difference. Good Bavarian yeast and Hallertau hops really make a good wheat beer hum, in my opinion.

This beer pours the requisite cloudy golden of an unfiltered wheat, and it has a quickly dissipating thin white head. The aroma here is very lemony sweet with a substantial amount of malt, giving it a thick and slightly bread-like quality in the nose. The initial taste of the beer is commanded by a substantial carbonation burn. This beer is bottle fermented, and it is apparent the fermentation is fairly vigorous to produce this amount of carbonation. Past this, the beer exhibits its sweet-bread malt on the front of the tongue, quickly adding a metallic undertone around the middle of the mouth, and finishing with that citrus sweetness. There is a fairly strong aftertaste that consists mostly of the malt and metallic properties. All in all, I think this is a great representation of the Bavarian hefeweizen style – one of the better versions I’ve found from an American brewer. So, hats off to this little brewery from Pennsylvania – well done.

Author: Ben
Categories: Beer Reviews, Hefeweizen, Pennsylvania, Young's
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