It was an unplanned marriage. In fact, in some ways it could have been considered an epicurean “shotgun wedding.” I had a cookout at my house to celebrate Independence Day with the family and a few friends. We made barbecued ribs and all the fixins. My fellow brewing buddy, Jeff, brought over a growler of Kolsch beer and a selection of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (Ellen’s Gourmet Ice Cream was closed). We drank an experimental IPA (The product of “Big Brew” day) with the ribs and it was a pretty good match.

After dinner we opened a fantastic bottle of Saison from a small garage brewery in Belgium. The Saison was made from Spelt, a variety of European wheat. The beer was bottle conditioned and had a champagne-like carbonation. It was a great palate cleanser for what was about to happen next.

It was dessert time. We had a variety of sweet things to choose from: homemade brownies, freshly picked blackberries, Jeff’s homemade chocolate sauce and a selection of ice creams from Ben & Jerry’s. Jeff and I hatched a scheme to work in a bottle of Young’s double chocolate stout into the dessert mix. We chose to make a stout float using the Cherry Garcia ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s. My daughter was a little distraught, thinking we were going to waste all of that precious ice cream on some failed beer experiment.

Making a stout float is simple. Use one large scoop of ice cream in a parfait glass and then simply pour enough stout as to make a typical ice cream float. If you can’t find Young’s Double Chocolate (and in WV, you likely won’t), try using St. Peter’s Cream Stout.

Even Jeff and I could not believe how delicious the pairing turned out. I have had stout-floats before, but never one as perfect as with the pairing of Cherry Garcia and Young’s Double Chocolate stout. The stout already supplies a wonderful dark chocolate bitterness, and then add the creaminess and the fresh cherry flavors of the ice cream, Wow! The chocolate chunks in the ice cream tie it all together. This was a home run…

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