The beer geek

Photo: Martha Williams

BLENDER BENDER In the last year or so, stout milk shakes have gone from appearing on maybe one or two dessert menus at contemporary restaurants to popping up in dozens of places, including as specials at traditional ice-cream parlors like Capannari’s and Bobtail. Guinness is the favored stout for the job, but in honor of our Ice Cream Issue, we tinkered around with a dozen different options. The best of the lot were New Glarus’ Coffee Stout (which makes an amazing mochalike shake, but is only available in Wisconsin, so we won’t tease with more details) and Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout. People often use “chocolate” to describe a stout’s flavor, but this one truly delivers that deep, dark chocolate taste loved by anyone with a pulse. And because it has the bite and strength of an Imperial stout, you can blend it with vanilla ice cream, add a touch of milk, and not only have one of the best shakes of your life, but still catch a buzz. Available for $10.99 a six-pack at West Lakeview Liquors (2156 W Addison St at Hamilton Ave, 773-525-1916).