Avery 16th Anniversary Ice Cream

We're back with another beer ice cream recipe. With a few batches under our belt now we wanted to branch out a bit and work with some additions. We wanted to enhance the peach flavor already present in the beer but we didn't want syrupy sweetness. The solution was to add fresh peaches to the almost frozen ice cream giving you little frozen bits of peach goodness. The lemon zest helps brighten things up withouth feeling overwhelming. This ice cream doesn't taste like beer, but you'll taste the earthy hints of the saison yeast and the overall freshness of the beer coming through. We hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

Avery 16th Anniversary Ice Cream with Lemon Zest and Fresh Peaches Recipe

Ingredients

    * 3 cups half-and-half
    * 1 cup heavy cream
    * 6large egg yolks
    * 1 cup sugar
    * 16 oz Avery 16th Anniversary Ale
    * 1 cup fresh diced peaches (roughly 2 peaches)
    * 1/2 tsp lemon zest

 
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Craft Beer & Chocolate Meet Again Follow Up

Devon and Jeff here. We just wanted to say thanks to everybody who came out to the Craft Beer and Taza Chocolate - Beer and Chocolate Meet Again event at The Wine Gallery on Saturday, August 1st! We had a great crowd come out (picture at right) and the event was a big success. Thanks to The Wine Gallery for hosting, Taza Chocolate for providing the chocolate, Stephanie from Taza Chocolate (picture below with Devon and Jeff from DrinkCraftBeer.com) for coming out to help explain what makes Taza Chocolate so delicious and Craft Brewers Guild for providing the North Coast Old Rasputin and Butternuts Heinnieweisse! In fact, people seemed to like the Heinnieweisse so much that we sold out within the first 45 minutes! And trust us, we got as much as we could... there was no more Heinnieweisse available at the distributor for anybody in the state!

We have a lot of new events in the works, so keep watching DrinkCraftBeer.com!

And, of course, if you want to see all the chocolate and craft beer pairings, check them out, Craft Beer and Taza Chocolate - Beer and Chocolate Meet Again.

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A night of New Glarus beer makes us want to go to Wisconsin

New Glarus Raspberry TartFor those in the craft beer scene New Glarus is one of those famed breweries that we all know about but many don't get to try. The reason for this is New Glarus only sells their beer in one state, Wisconsin. Fortunately for us a friend recently brought back some of their beers for us to try. In short, the hype is real, the beer is amazing and we need to make it out to Wisconsin now to go buy more. Raspberry Tart, perhaps the most famous beer from New Glarus, did not disappoint. We rarely enjoy fruit beers but you know something is good when 6 guys sitting around having some drinks all exclaim various versions of "wow," "delicious" and "amazing" upon first sip. This beer goes beyond beer, it's really more like sparkling raspberry juice that is also somehow miraculously beer. While very sweet it's in no way cloying and it doesn't wear on your pallet like many sweeter beers do. Raspberry Tart seems to walk some perfect line that no other fruit beer we've tried has been able to do, perhaps that's why it's so well known.

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Pretty Things American Darling Review

Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project American Darling Good Time Lager

With the newest of Dann Paquette's, Brewer and Owner of Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, latest creation being released we had to give it a try. While we love Jack D'Or and St. Botolph's Town this beer doesn't quite match them. It starts out clean with some nice hops, but quickly gets sweet with an odd lager taste. It seems like this beer just doesn't know what it's trying to be. It's decent, but the alcohol comes through at the end which makes this beer feel too big for itself. 7% abv is too much for a beer of this flavor profile if you want to drink it during the summer. We wish this thing was 5% abv. If it was, we bet it would be a great beer! This just needs more or less alcohol... but it has to decide! We'll stick with drinking Jack D'Or and St. Botolph's Town and loving every sip!
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Sweet Tomatoes Pizza Adds 9 Local Beers

We love local food almost as much as we love local beer. When we found out that Sweet Tomatoes in Osterville, MA had started featuring local beer at their restaurant we needed to find out more. Sweet Tomatoes serves gourmet pizza featuring fresh ingredients. Their flavors range from the staples like pepperoni to house specials like the "Pizza Sarah" which includes goat cheese, bacon, caramelized onions and mozzarella. Darren Bagley-Heath, proprietor of Sweet Tomatoes Osterville, MA, grew up in the UK and found himself missing his local "free house."  For those not familiar with the term, a free house is simply a local pub, not tied to a specific brewery as many are in the UK, featuring local beer. Don't dismiss this effort as a simple recreation of a British Pub across the pond, Sweet Tomatoes has made a conscientious effort to take the essence of the British tradition and add American craft beer flavor. We decided to talk to Bagley-Heath and get some more details on how this new focus came to be.
 
DCB: What inspired you to focus on local beer?
 
Bagley-Heath: In the UK you would go to different parts of the country and you would get different beers. You would go in and there would be a regional flavor and flair.
When I first came to the States, the beer selection here was mediocre but now there's great beer to be had locally. 
 
DCB: Well we can certainly agree with that, what beers have you decided to focus on?
 
Bagley-Heath: I had the Cape Code Brewing Company IPA and knew I wanted to bring them in as soon as I could. The idea was to bring in one beer of each style, we had the IPA from Cape Cod as well as their Hef and Red. We talked to Mayflower Brewing Company and brought in their Pale and Golden Ales and have additional offerings from Buzzards Bay like their Pilsner. We'll also be getting firkins of the Mayflower Pale Ale soon.
 
DCB: OK, now you have our attention! Mayflower Pale Ale on cask?
 
Bagley-Heath: We'll have a gravity fed firkin right on top of the bar. We really want to give people a chance to drink local beer and get people excited about it. We've undergone quite a bit of renovation lately: new floors, lighting and we've run all brand new lines for the beer. There's nothing worse than when dirty lines ruin your beer. In addition to all the new beers on tap we've also come up with a special summer shandy. An employee really enjoyed a bottled version of the summer shandy and we decided to make our own. We mix Pellegrino sparkling lemonade with Cape Code Hefeweizen, people have really liked it. We've also got a great outdoor seating area to enjoy during the summer months.
 
DCB: Ok, we're sold!
 
It's great to see more places featuring local beer and we can't think of many things better than enjoying some great pizza with fresh local beer outside on the Cape. So while you're down at the Cape this summer be sure to head over to Sweet Tomatoes. Drop by for a pint, and try some cask beer, especially if you've never had beer on cask before. We're excited to see ideas like this catch on more and we think they will. For more information and directions to Sweet Tomatoes visit http://www.sweettomatoescapecod.com/
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Few things are more gratifying to the soul than pizza and beer save perhaps loca...