This content was originally published by The Hop Review, a digital magazine that joined the Hop Culture family in March 2020.
This piece was written by Jack Muldowney.
Well, shit. We’re finally past winter for good (although likely not fully past summertime references of Polar Vortex days gone-by). And now, depending on where you are, it’s likely hot as hell out. And to that, we say cheers! To help celebrate this feat of Midwest living, we teamed up with the gals over at Some Kitchen Stories to help concoct a summer refresher: beer floats. A little background on SKS – they provide fictional back stories that lead up to awesome recipes and I-wanna-eat-that-right-f’n-now food photography (provided by Maine writer, Judie Cutrone & Chicago photographer, Nicole McQuade). These are two talented women, we can vouch for ’em.
In short, they did all of the work, and we merely suggested a few great beers for the recipe. Our top pick for their “coffee stout float” recipe was from Detroit’s Atwater Brewing (and actually a porter instead of a stout): the Vanilla Java Porter. Our runners-up were Coffee Bender from Surly and Edmund Fitzgerald from Great Lakes Brewing.
Go check out the recipe here, and please share with us which stouts, browns or porters you woulda chosen yourself. And don’t forget the ice cream.
Photography by the talented Nicole McQuade.