729. New Belgium Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale

This is a beer that I have been excited about for a long time. It's taken a while for me to track down both the beer and the ice cream - I refused to do one without the other. Tonight, it finally happened. 

Brown Ales are my favorite, so tend to be the most picky about them. This one is really good, but not one of my favorites. It is the high quality that I expect from New Belgium, it has an amazing aroma that gets me ready to drink it - then things get confusing (but not in a bad way).  The full body starts really dry with some bitterness - I'm assuming this is to represent the salted flavor, it's quickly replaced with a nice and flavorful brown ale that I really enjoy, and then I get a nice long and lingering caramel flavor in my mouth. It's a nice and sweet finish to the dry start - until that bitterness bookends itself and shows up again to crush the caramel and leave me craving another drink to get that dry feeling out of my mouth. Overall, it's really enjoyable and I won't have a problem knocking out this six pack with the ice cream to go with it. 

Speaking of the ice cream - it is exactly what you would expect from Ben and Jerry's.  A nice and delicious base with some large chunks of brownie and lots of swirls of caramel. I think they did something to the brownie pieces to give it a salty flavor. My only question now: do I put some scoops of ice cream into a pint glass and make a Beer Float???