Dark Stout Beer Float

Beer Floats. These two little words may strike fear in your heart, but let's pause for a second and think about what we're actually saying. Beer (win). And ice cream (double win). The fact that they're together does not negate their respective deliciousness factors...it multiplies them. Granted, I'm not recommending you go pour bud lite all over your rocky road, but with a little deftness there are some truly innovative combinations to be made. Here's my pilot run:

The Beer: 
Dragon's Milk, New Holland Brewing Company. Part of their special high gravity series, 10% abv. From the label: "A barrel-aged stout with roasty malt character intermingled with deep vanilla tones, all dancing in an oak bath". 
They're right, it does dance. The beer is smooth and rich on the tongue, reminiscent of chocolate and caramel. The high alcohol content comes through in a twinge in the back of your mouth, creating a flavor profile similar to that of Bailey's Irish Cream. 


The Ice Cream:
#1. French Vanilla, industrial-style. (One of these ingredients is winning the classy badge, and I'll give you a hint...it doesn't come from a square foot plastic tub.)
#2. Coffee, Edy's Slow Churned. A small step up.


All Together Now!
I scooped the ice cream into two separate dishes and poured the beer right over the top. (Be warned: delicious as it is, this is a rich combination and not something you're going to be drinking out of a milkshake glass - don't get ahead of yourself.) We rather preferred the float with vanilla ice cream to the coffee. Vanilla enhanced the creaminess of the beer, while smoothing out the finish, and adding an indulgent sweetness to the whole experience. The coffee was certainly not bad, but surprisingly couldn't hold it's own against the strength of the beer. A more intense coffee ice cream might have been more effective at adding another dimension to the drink, but as it was it lacked the basic creaminess of the Vanilla, and still brought nothing new to the table. 


Pretty much an instant winner - all three of my test subjects, though amusingly dubious at first, ended the night raving about this new concoction. Go do it now, you know you can't resist the curiosity of this experience.