Colorado’s New Belgium Brewing and Vermont ice cream baron Ben & Jerry’s are making their recently announced partnership a double dip.
The companies on Wednesday announced plans to introduce Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale – a limited edition ice cream that consists of New Belgium Brown Ale Ice Cream with Salted Caramel Swirls and Fudge Brownies.
The treat, which will be sold in pints around the country, is the second collaboration between the two companies, which introduced Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale (ABV: 6.3%) earlier this year. The beer will hit st ore shelves in November. Both products will be available through the holiday season.
As with the beer, the ice cream will help benefit “Protect Our Winters,” an environmental group that helps fight the effects of climate change on mountains.
The products, which will each have a roughly three month run at retail, were designed to pair together, says Bryan Simpson, PR manager for New Belgium.
“They have the same flavor profile in that you’ve got caramel and brownies going on in both,” he says. “The pour over, which is how you’re going to experience it, is a scoop of ice cream with beer over it. My inference was it was going to be very sweet – like a root beer float, but the beer is a lot dryer than a root beer would be. The salt plays off the sweet very well.”
The team-up is hardly the first fusion of craft beer and frozen deserts. Some minor league ballparks around the country have served beer milkshakes for several years. Atlanta, GA-based Frozen Pints sells a line of craft beer ice creams, which have alcohol levels of up to 3.2%. And Denver’s Sweet Action Ice Cream has made several craft beer-infused varieties since it opened in 2009.
(Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale only contains trace elements of alcohol, similar to what a vanilla bean leaves, says Simpson.)
A beer-based ice cream may not be the most unusual upcoming offering from Ben & Jerry’s, which has never shied away from unique flavors before. Earlier this year, co-founder Ben Cohen said he’s open to the idea of selling a marijuana-flavored ice cream, though the company has not made any announcements about such a flavor.
That said, the craft beer scene has certainly paved the way should Ben & Jerry’s decide to pursue that flavor.
Colorado-based Dad & Dude’s Breweria introduced Indica Double IPA earlier this year, a beer made with cannabidoil, which is extracted from legal hemp. (The THC is stripped from the hemp used in production, so imbibers won’t get high.)
Demand for a taste of the beer was overwhelming at this year’s Great American Beer Festival, with show goers willing to wait up 20-30 minutes for a taste.
