New Belgium Brewery meets Stumpjack Gelato

Just made a batch of New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale and Vanilla Gelato. New Belgium Brewing is the Colorado brewery, Fat Tire is the name of their flagship, and they have recently opened distribution into Wisconsin. Everyone around here thinks the name of the brewery is Fat Tire, so maybe we should just call tit Fat Tire Gelato, but we'll stay true to the brew and call it 1554 Enlightened Black Ale & Vanilla gelato. I like that you need to be 21 or older and show an ID to get some. And we do, of course, have 1554 and Fat Tire on hand in bottles as well.

Here's the script on the 1554 Black Ale from the New Belgium website:
Born of a flood and centuries-old Belgian text, 1554 Enlightened Black Ale uses a light lager yeast strain and dark chocolaty malts to redefine what dark beer can be. In 1997, a Fort Collins flood destroyed the original recipe our researcher, Phil Benstein, found in the library. So Phil and brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert, traveled to Belgium to retrieve this unique style lost to the ages. Their first challenge was deciphering antiquated script and outdated units of measurement, but trial and error (and many months of in-house sampling) culminated in 1554, a highly quaffable dark beer with a moderate body and mouthfeel.

gelato testimonials abound!

Yet another gelato testimonial (see Mike Z's in the post below) from one of the many highly intelligent, sophisticated and demanding gourmands who frequent Stumpjack Coffee Co.

WOW! I just finished a bowl of Gelato from Stumpjack Coffee, and all I can say is WOW! I've been all over the world (including Minnesota and the UP) and this is the best Gelato I've ever had! Keep up the good work David.

Marv
Co-creator of Dr. Marv's Morning Tonic and world renowned Gelato connoisseur

An absolutely uncanny image of Marv...Simpsonized.

Ok, here's another one from Kim from Persimmons:

Ok I am not a world traveler by any means.... I have been to Mexico once but stayed in a resort which hardly qualifies as experiencing the culture...... so when my friend David at Stumpjack told me he was getting gelato soon I didn't know what it was. Well I went there this morning and let me tell you gelato is flippin fantastic! Oh my it was the yummiest creamiest dreamiest thing I honestly ever tasted (I had pistachio). I love ice cream but I am afraid I will never eat another Dairy Queen cone without thinking if only this was gelato....so get to Stumpjack next week and get some.

I haven't Simpsonized Kim yet.

Disclaimer: Kim's comments reveal an almost orgasmic ecstasy over the gelato. While we will concur that it is a deeeeeelicious taste treat, I don't want people to get the wrong idea. So, while gelato has been shown to have powerful aphrodisiac qualities and will surely enhance your love life in ways too racy to recount here, we cannot absolutely guarantee that you will experience actual full-blown multiple orgasms while eating gelato here at Stumpjack (of course we can't guarantee that you won't experience those sensations either...the blueberry gelato might be a good bet).

Stumpy vacay this weekend/Gelato update

Stumpjack Coffee will be closed this weekend, August 25 & 26, and we will back on Wednesday the 29th as usual. Taking a much welcome little getaway with the family before school starts up in another week (I miss my girls! Didn't do any fishing or hiking together this summer at all). I think I'm going to be much more adamant and disciplined in making sure I take a little time off more regularly, even if that means closing shop for several days every so often. Cheyenne is going to Lincoln High this year as a sophomore and Jesse is entering junior high as a 7th grader. Man, time is surely a thief.

Gelato! Only have a few minutes to write this but we actually made some gelato this afternoon. Our rep, Ken, came in and showed us the ropes and we made some pistachio and blueberry gelato. Deeeelicious! I gotta boogie now if I'm going to make the finale of Lakeshore's Rising Stars! so I'll write more tomorrow.

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Ok, it's Thursday morning so let's talk gelato. Made some chocolate this morning and it is...very...very...chocolaty. Only made a half pan as I'm still experimenting and learning the process. But everyone who's been in has loved the stuff. We don't yet have everything we need, like proper gelato dishes and those cool little neon shovel spoons (some dingbat forgot to order them when he ordered product...yea, that was me), so we've been giving away samples in little drinking cups with plastic picnic spoons. This morning I found that the display freezer is running too cold as well...the stuff was hard as a rock. So I've been playing with the temp on that all morning.

Kim bought some decorative stuff for the display: wafer cookies, pistachio nuts, blueberries, drizzle...decorating the gelato in the display case will be a lot of fun. Shoot, the whole thing is fun...even cleaning the machine (although I won't be surprised if that doesn't take too long to not be fun anymore). Gotta order those dishes and spoons now.

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This just in the email pipeline from our pal Mike Zimmer:

Hello Everyone,

I know that it's a tough job, that's why I'm doing it --- testing Stumpjack Coffee Company's new Gelato offerings!

I can unequivocally tell you that calling this wonderful product "ice cream" is doing it a disservice. It is GOOD! It has a creamy mouth feel and richness that is positively decadent.

You must stop in to try it.

There it is, you have my recommendation.

Sincerely,

Mike

Michael S. Zimmer

Executive Director

Two Rivers Main Street, Inc.

Gelato and the DooDah

Just got our gelato batch freezer and display case in! Eeehaa!! Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'll be talking to the guys who bring in the actual products that we use to make the gelato, we'll be running through some test batches and should, hopefully, have the real McCoy ready to offer by week's end. Yes, it's a couple weeks later than what we had anticipated and hoped for but deliveries were delayed for whatever reason (equipment from California, via Italy originally)...and if you see our little ad in the newspaper tomorrow just hang tight (it says that we "have gelato" now)...btw, I'm amazed at the number of people who saw the ad before I submitted it who don't know who those guys are that are pictured in it...if you recognize them, bring the ad in when we're ready with the gelato and we'll knock something off your first serving.

The DooDah Hops Smoothie looks like it's going to be the official name of the beer smoothie...named in honor of the chap who challenged me to come up with it (our own Doug Day, whose nickname is DooDah...or should I say one of his nicknames, he's been called other things I'm sure!). We'll be setting up an unofficial historical marker downtown, doing a fake ribbon cutting ceremony, taking some quick pictures and drinking a few DooDahs to celebrate (we don't need much of an excuse to have fun around here).

Heading up to Green Bay now on more coffee business...our closed days are really work days, after all, but I want to remind everyone again that we will be closed the weekend of the 25th and 26th, along with our regular Monday and Tuesday (Saturday through Tuesday) this month...for decidedly non-work activity (it'll be "book, beer and bug-spray" time in Door County for this mother's son).