For those of you that have been following me for a while you will remember #Beermonth from last year. It is a month where I celebrate my love for craft beer with: recipes, articles, reviews and more from me and some of my blogging friends! This year I have my friend Lauren from Hall's Nesting, Jessica from Jessiker Bakes, Melissa from Drunk and Unemployed and Nicole from Nibbles by Nic.You can expect BIG recipe posts 4/16 and 4/30 from ALL of us and maybe some articles and general craft beer love coming your way!
The Story of Beer Month...
My love of craft beer started with The Gateway to Craft Beer, Pumpkin Spice. I think you ladies know what I am talking about. If not this is the magic that is pumpkin spice ale- It is ale brewed with pumpkin and spices and then in NY (as I understand this is not done everywhere) they rim the glass with pumpkin spice sugar. TO- DIE- FOR. I fell and I fell hard for the spice. The spice captured my heart and then I just had to know more about craft beer.
I moved on to other fruit beers. One of my first faves was Bluepoint Blueberry Ale, so delicious and perfect in the summer. Then I tried Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Then I really started getting adventurous and ventured onto the dark side. Dark beers- dun dun dun **cue scary music**
I learned one thing- never to judge a beer by it's color. Just like with people, you should see what's happening on the inside. While I don't encourage you to lick a person to see if they're any good... I do encourage you to at least take a simple sip of a beer. At worst, you can easily spit it our if you don't like it.
Since I had my own blog I knew I had to incorporate cooking and beer together for a month of craft beer love.
Since my love of craft beer grew, it blossomed into a new direction for me. I write for 2 magazines about local craft beer and have become completely immersed with the craft beer culture here on Long Island. Beer month was born so I can share recipes with local craft beer and give you a little taste of the local scene and happenings.
Since I never drink alone- I always invite some bloggers to get in on the fun with me!
I have some surprises too! This month I will be brewing my VERY own beer with The Brewers Collective, a local group of home brewers. I strongly believe that homebrewers' creativity heavily influences the nano and craft brew market. With homebrew you can take those chances and you know I like to get creative!
Now for the reason you are all here- this drippy mess of deliciousness that I call A Chocolate Stout Milkshake...
I have been going to a local restaurant, Relish, for a while now. The food is always fresh, as local as it can be and inventive while still being incredibly comforting and inviting. No small portion or names you cannot pronounce or understand. This is down to earth, creative twists on classic comfort. A place that anyone can feel comfortable. When I heard they were serving beer, I was excited. When I saw they had a Guinness Milk Shake, I had to try it and WOAH it stopped me in my tracks, I clutched my chest to keep my heart still. It was way better than I ever expected.
Chocolate and Stouts are not an uncommon combination at all. If you follow one of my faves, The Beeroness, You will see stout and chocolate are a "thing", basically mouth magic! The dark maltiness of a stout already had notes of chocolate present often, so to add it to a chocolate recipe further pushes the bounderies.
So I thank Relish in Kings Park, NY for this recipe! It rocks HARD!
Why is this a Foodgasm?
This is pretty easy to answer, chocolate ice cream + stout beer = MAGIC.But to balance it out there is caramel and chocolate syrup for a little more sweet-ness as stouts sometimes have a bitter edge to them.
