During L.A. Beer Week, you can find beer flavored ice cream or check out beer floats but Salt & Straw in Portland has created a 6 pack of “flavors feature beers from Breakside Brewery, Gigantic Brewing Company, Hair of the Dog Brewing Company, Logsdon Organic Farmhouse Ales, The Commons Brewery and Widmer Brothers Brewing.”
This part of the press release got me excited, “Instead of just using beer as a flavoring agent, head ice cream maker Tyler Malek collaborated with each brewer on techniques and ingredients to create each ice cream’s unique flavor profile.”
They will become available on June 1st and can be purchased through September for nationwide shipping and at Portland area scoop shops throughout the month of June.
Which of these would you buy? My first choice is below…..
Six pack of Oregon Craft Beer Ice Creams:
Cherry Adam from the Wood – Alan Sprints of Hair of the Dog Brewing has been experimenting with a barrel aging process since 1994. Barrel aging beers for up to eight years mellows out the flavors and transforms beers to create something completely new. Finding inspiration in Hair of the Dog’s “Cherry Adam of the Wood”, Salt & Straw created a dark malty, cherry ice cream and cold steeped it in a bourbon barrel from Hair of the Dog Brewery. This is the first truly barrel-aged ice cream ever churned; it’s only fitting to have Alan Sprints at our sides for this project.
Hopped Farmhouse Ale – Based off of Commons Brewery’s “Myrtle Farmhouse Ale,” Commons has brewed a tart sour mash to show off Meridian hops. Salt & Straw uses three different methods to steep the Meridian hops in order to capture the bright aromas of peach and refreshing bitterness of grapefruit that only this variety of hops can provide in this ice cream.
Bretta Fermented Pears and Fudge – David Logsdon at Logsdon Farmhouse Ales has a lifetime of experience creating and procuring yeast strains. Using his famous Bretta yeast strain and inspiration from their “Cocoa Bretta Ale”, Salt & Straw along with Logsdon Ales has carefully fermented both Pear Juice and a malted fudge syrup to make a Bretta Pear ice cream with ribbons of Bretta Malted Fudge. The fermentation brings out a variety of flavors as well as bringing out an entirely new dimension of flavors that marry the pear and chocolate flavors beautifully.
Passion fruit Berliner Weisse Marmalade in Coconut Water Sorbet – Breakside Brewery is constantly pushing the limits with both flavor combinations and their different brewing techniques. Using Breakside’s “Passion fruit Berliner Weisse,” we have worked together to create a tart, lactic acid-rich, passion fruit sweetened, marmalade. Salt & Straw churned out a coconut water sorbet in order to create a subtly sweet palate to show off this one-of-a-kind marmalade.
Smoked Hefeweizen – The brewers at Widmer Brothers Brewing know how to make a Hefeweizen. To recreate that sweet malty flavor of wheat ale, we’re working closely with Ben Dobler, the head brewer for Widmer. Salt & Straw takes a spin on their world famous Hefeweizen by smoking wheat malts and steeping them into the cream to create a Smoked Hefeweizen ice cream. The sweetness of wheat malts is the first to pop out in this ice cream; meanwhile, the subtle smokiness lingers on the palate making for the perfect beer ice cream for summer.
IPA Upside Down Cake – Gigantic Brewing Company’s Imperial IPA is laced with pineapple, citrus and piney hop profiles along with a rich maltiness. Salt & Straw captured these flavors in ice cream by using hop-back techniques to pull out the sweet and spicy hop flavors. To punch thru the tropical fruit notes, they baked off a Pineapple Upside Down Cake that is infused with Ho leaf and candied tangerine zest.
Bretta Fudge is my choice followed by the IPA Upside Down cake.