Cascade-Honey Ice Cream

Well, we forgot to take out some meat from the freezer for dinner tonight so we ended up going out to the Blue Monk.  I've been there a couple times, but this was one of my first eating there.  I'm not going into a whole post about a dinner, but I will say that one of the beers I had, Goose Island's Dominique was quite exceptional.  It was a sour/wild ale, and it makes me anxious for the weather in Buffalo turn warmer so I can start to harvest my own yeast.

On to the post.  One of my other passions besides brewing beer is making ice cream.  There's just something about making your own ice cream that's satisfying, much like brewing beer.  I've been wanting to combine the two for some time now, and I finally saw the opportunity to make a move with some whole Cascade hops that I had.

If anyone has an ice cream maker, here is the recipe I came up with:
3 heaping tbsp Cascade hops
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Bring 1 cup of milk to a boil then remove from heat.  Add hops and let steep for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, beat honey, flour and salt into the egg yolks.  Strain the hop infused milk into the egg mixture, add half and half and return to heat.  Be careful not to boil at this point, because the eggs will scramble.  This mixture needs to be thickened up to a custard.  Then remove from heat, strain again, and add the heavy cream.  Then, the mixture just needs to refrigerate until cold and then should be frozen in your ice cream maker.

If the ice cream is made as above, it will end up being an off white/cream color.  I suggest adding two drops of green food coloring to give it a nice light olive tint.

I enjoyed this ice cream, although as I have said in the past, I am not a hop head.  I think the best way to enjoy this, if you are like me, is with a nice rich malty beer in between sips.

On Deck: Imperial IPA (3/17), Mango Habanero Wit (3/24)
Primary: Chili Lime Pilsner, Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier
Secondary: Belgian Blonde
Conditioning: Elder Ale
Total for 2011: 27 Gallons

Mango Habanero Wit

I don't know what the hell is wrong with me.  Jay and I win a competition then I take a week off of posting.  It could be see it as a deserved break, almost a reward, but I instead restocked on ammunition for the blog, brewing, creating, and experimenting.  So, back I go, onto the three post a week schedule.

This is my last beer in my three beer series.  I am going to take the classic Belgian Wit south of the boarder for my final Cinco de Mayo beer.  The base of the beer will be flaked wheat and Belgian Pilsner malt.  The hops are still up in the air, but they will not be too prevalent since it is a Wit, and for yeast I will use Forbidden Fruit from WYeast Labs.  That's the easy part.  The rest, I don't really have too much experience brewing with.  I will be spicing it with the traditional coriander and orange peel, then for the habanero and mango, I have no idea.  I did find mention of using habanero in Radical Brewing, but it was quite vague on how spicy the beer would actually be.  I think I will end up using one pepper, de-seeded for my two gallon batch and see where that takes me.  The mango is still up in the air.  It may be a game day decision on how much to use and if I should use it in secondary of in the boil.

I'm a bit behind in my brewing, due to some of my longer fermentation times so by the time I brew this one, it will be about a week off from where I would like, but it should still be ready by Cinco de Mayo.

On Deck: Imperial IPA (3/17), Mango Habanero Wit (3/24)
Primary: Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier, Chili Lime Pilsner
Secondary: Belgian Blonde (Ended up being more like a Biere de Garde)
Conditioning: Elder Ale