Food and beer were the theme this week, specifically desserts and even more specifically vanilla ice cream. The idea was to showcase how just adding a simple pairing with vanilla ice cream can change beer and perceived flavors, and we ended the show with Dr. Johnny Blindside getting to try his first ever beer float!
Unibroue- Ephemere: Strong notes of apple are dominant throughout, but this is certainly a beer that maintains its balance and does not cross over into the real fruit beer category, hence no lingering residual sweetness from this beer. Instead you are treated to a wonderfully balanced apple forward beer that still maintains a very crisp and dry finish. The additional pairing with the vanilla ice cream created a smooth creamy base for the beer that created a flavor explosion of apple pie ala mode while enhancing the body of the beer at the same.
Brouwerij Lindemans- Kriek Lambic: Lindeman's Kriek is a cherry lambic with strong tart cherry notes dominating throughout. This is more of a fruit beer when compared to Ephemere, but still not resounding over the top sweetness. This wonderful 4% ABV dessert beer is one that is great to have on hand for any occasion. Despite the sweet cherry notes this does manage to have a very dry almost puckering finish to it. The addition of the ice cream took away the overly dry finish and created a smoother beer that danced around the palate and left a creamy cherry pie flavor on the palate to linger, extremely enjoyable!
Stone Brewing Co.- Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle Peppers: This is the newest beer on today's show, just hit the market a few days before airing, so this was a surprise tasting. The smoked porter qualities are certainly still present, but the addition of the peppers gives a flavor profile that smooths out the smokey flavor and adds an extra spicy kick, but is still manageable and not overwhelmingly spicy. The peppers makes an appearance on the palate up front before the malts wash over and relieve. This is a beer we paired with 2 different desserts to experiment. The vanilla ice cream knocked the spices down a bit and enhanced the body of the beer creating a very smooth and creamy American Porter, while the pairing with brownies enhanced the smokey malt bill and brought them forward and pushed the spicy pepper bite back to a finishing flavor characteristic. Another phenomenal beer from a phenomenal brewery!
Samuel Smith- Organic Chocolate Stout: Easily one of the best chocolate stouts available today. Samuel Smith, an English brewery that produces some of the best examples of a wide variety of styles, brewed this world class sweet stout with no shame in adding a lot of chocolate to the base. The result is a nearly identical taste to a melted Hershey chocolate bar, in the best way possible, however there is again no lingering sweetness on the palate. This is a beer that cries out to be made into a beer float, so we listened. The combination with the vanilla ice cream made a deeply flavorful beer that was reminiscent of a homemade chocolate cream pie. Fans of stouts must try this beer!
This weeks special 5th beer for the nether-regions of Derek's refrigerator:
Firestone Walker- §ucaba: This is quite simply put, one of the best barley wines available today. This 13.5% ABV barrel aged English barley wine explodes with flavors and aromas and is certainly a sipping beer, not just because of the ABV but also because of the complexity, it is a beer that you will want to talk about. Aromas and tastes of coconut, vanilla, chocolate, and cherries make this not only a dream dessert beer, but possibly a dream and if it is, we never want to wake up! An absolute MUST try!!
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