Cooking With Craft Beer: Bittersweet Chocolate and Stout Ice Cream

Here is the recipe that we used on the 3 Growlers show for Bittersweet Chocolate and Stout Ice Cream:

This recipe was found on Allrecipes.com here:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bittersweet-Chocolate-and-Stout-Beer-Ice-Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 Pint Heavy Cream
• 1 Package of Chocolate Chips (we used semi-sweet)
• 3/4 Cup of Sugar
• 1 Pint of Local Stout (We used Big Wood's Morning Wood)
• Any additional topping (nuts, whip cream, etc, we don't recommend any more chocolate, it's pretty rich at this point)

 Directions:

1. Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it begins to bubble. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and sugar until melted. Slowly stir in the stout beer. Cover and refrigerate until completely cooled.
2. Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions until it reaches "soft-serve" consistency. Transfer ice cream to a two-quart lidded plastic container; cover surface with plastic wrap and seal. For best results, ice cream should ripen in the freezer for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Watch our 3 Growlers Episode to watch us make the ice cream:

Brews and Reviews: Dangerous Man Brewing Company's Chocolate Milk Stout

Trying to figure out my first post for Beelploma.com came with a little bit of anxiety and help from an expert source.  A good friend and former colleague of mine and I had got to talking about this endeavor and based on where I live and what I usually dig. He suggested I tackle Dangerous Man Brewing Co. and their flagship brew; the Chocolate Milk Stout.

Photo courtesy of Dangerous Man Brewing Company

I grabbed a pint of the infamous beer of 13th and 2nd in NE Minneapolis, right there at the taproom (one of the only two ways you can grab their beers. The other being via growler) with my wife and her aunt and uncle who were up from Kansas City. Everyone but my wife, who doesn't drink much anyway, ended up ordering a pint to accompany some much needed catching up and good conversation.

This beer looks intimidating and intense, as some craft stouts tend to do, just based on its extremely dark tone and deep copper hues on the head.  Often times, these stouts' tough appearance is matched with a heavy taste, overwhelming mouth feel and strong overall taste. However, the Chocolate Milk Stout from Dangerous Man suffers from none of those. One's senses are greeted with a very smooth beer that is tickled with a great classic stout taste accompanied with hints of chocolate and coffee.  The brewer perfectly balances the aroma and flavors of the product, while creating a beverage that isn't too over-the-top, but isn't whimpering as it enters your mouth. Even on a warm Minnesota afternoon, this beer was refreshing and delicious.

The Chocolate Milk Stout is also, surprisingly, a great beer for any occasion. This variation on the classic high gravity beer is like that of John Bender; tough looking exterior, but once you get to the core of it, a really sweet and enticing product that everyone either wants or wants to be.