Vanilla, Chocolate and erm .... Cloudberry?! These are the ice cream flavours that have inspired three creations by a Buxton Brewery and Omnipollo collaboration. After the success of the Yellow Belly Imperial Stout there is much excitement around this trio of ice cream ales. We were disappointed to have missed tasting these at Beavertown's recent 4th birthday event due to early sell out, but we did overhear good things. Luckily we had a second chance and where better to taste these beers then to go to one half of the source - the Buxton Tap House!
First of all we tried the Ice Cream Pale 5.6%. The colour is true to its name as it was pale in appearance with a craft haze. The taste is just like a soft serve vanilla ice cream. If, like me, you have a sweet tooth then you will not be disappointed in the flavour of this beer. There are some hoppy notes that you'd expect from a pale ale however they did not over power the vanilla flavour or the sweetness. The texture was slightly creamy from the addition of lactose during brewing, leaving a lasting thin coating over your tongue. I'd have happily drank this all afternoon but there were more beers to try!
Next up was the Cloudberry Ice Cream IPA 7.2%. This was the Swedish Omnipolo twist to the traditional Neapolitan by changing strawberry to cloudberry. I wasn't sure what to expect after ordering this considering I'd not heard of a cloudberry before but was interested to give it a go. Again there was a creamy, sweet smell to this beer, much like the Pale Ale. On tasting the IPA there was a soft sour flavour of the Cloudberry fruit which made me keep going back for more. The hops are much more detectable in this beer so the bitterness takes a step up. Usually IPA's leave me with a soapy after taste however the balance of the sweet, sour and bitterness flavours work really well together giving this beer a rounded finish. The Cloudberry IPA has some similarities to the Pale Ale which made it a nice beer to follow on to and the sourness helped clean the palate, ready for the next beer.
Lastly was the Chocolate Ice Cream Brown Ale 6.2%. As you would expect this beer was much darker in colour than the previous two. On the nose there is no mistaking that this was definitely chocolate. Having tried other chocolate styled beers that hadn't quite lived up to expectation I was excited to find out exactly what this tasted like. I wasn't disappointed as a luxurious chocolatey taste coated my tongue. There's a lingering after taste, which at first I thought was coffee, however as the flavour developed the bitterness takes on that of a rich dark chocolate. Overall the experience of this beer reminded me of that last sip of the rich, bitter, chocolatey liquid in the bottom of a hot chocolate.
So the final verdict on these three ales: I was really surprised how much like ice cream these beers were so they really delivered on expectations. We decided to have these beers in order of colour but because they are linked by similar creamy flavours I think you could choose to drink them in any combination. There's also a flavour for everyone! I'd never tried beers like this before and after drinking all three I don't think I could single out a favourite. These ales would be lovely to drink in the summer but even with it raining heavily outside I still felt transported to a warm summer's day.
Whilst in the Buxton Tap House we noticed a member of staff bringing in a slush ice machine. I'd already heard about bars serving these beers topped with iced vanilla pale ale so we waited in for the slush to be ready. After waiting all afternoon and into the early evening it was finally ready. I'd never been more excited as I watched the bar staff pour chilled slush onto my second pale ale. This was super thick, creamy and the vanilla flavour did not disappear under the frozen top. The novelty also added to the drinking experience, like drinking an alcoholic ice cream float. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend having one!
