Beer for dessert? Beer and dessert are usually not words found in the same sentence. Generally, this is a good rule to follow. But, like all rules, there are exceptions. As an example of an exception I pose the following combination - Ice Box cake and Southern Tier Crème Brulee stout. For those of you unfamiliar with Ice Box cake. It is a simple dessert. It consists of a layer of Graham crackers, a layer of cooked chocolate pudding, and a layer of whipped cream. This sequence is repeated a second time. It is kept in the refrigerator until served. The Southern Tier Crème Brulee Stout tastes just like it sounds. It literally is like a dessert in a bottle tasting very much like the dessert it is named for. Especially if you follow this suggestion. The Crème Brulee stout is sold in a 23 oz bottle so splitting it among friends is no problem. There were four of us so it was easily split four ways. What really brought out it's flavor was that it was served in Brandy snifters. The Brandy snifter concentrated and focused the Crème Brulee like aromas. The effect was like smelling a freshly made Crème Brulee dessert. This stout will probably mate well with other desserts of your choice (one that comes to mind is a good quality vanilla ice cream with the Crème Brulee stout poured over it like a sauce) but the ice box cake mated well for a couple of reasons. The Graham crackers in the ice box cake matched up and mated well with the creamy sweet flavor of the stout. Kind of like what it might taste like if you dunked the crackers in the stout. Also, the chocolate flavors offered up by the chocolate pudding were echoed by the stout flavors in the beer. Together they show that, there are exceptions to every rule. |
BeerNexus proudly presents Bob Montemurro "the ombudsman of beer" Bob says...... |
Hope you enjoyed my inaugural column for BeerNexus. I intend to write about a wide variety of topics so please come back to see what I have to say.... Cheers! Bob Montemurro |