It’s no secret, I love ice cream.  And I’ve hopped on the Portland hipster bandwagon and fallen completely in love with Salt & Straw, Portland’s farm-to-cone ice cream shop.  I have friends from all over the country who have tried Salt & Straw ice cream with doubt and disbelief only to become fanatics after just a few licks.  Not only do I like organic beers, I pretty much swoon for anything that is local, sustainable and organic.  This is why I love Salt & Straw, their ice cream is handmade in small-batches using only all-natural dairy from the best local, sustainable and organic ingredients Oregon has to offer.

Last month, Salt & Straw stepped their game up teaming with six local Portland breweries to make a six-pack collection of beer-infused ice creams.  I was lucky enough to try all six.  Here is what they created:

1. Passionfruit Berliner Weisse in Coconut Water Sorbet: Using Breakside Brewery’s “Passion fruit Berliner Weisse” to create a tart, passion fruit sweetened, marmalade that is ribboned into a coconut water sorbet.
2. Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout: Finding inspiration in Hair of the Dog’s barrel aged “Cherry Adam of the Wood,” to created a dark malty, cherry ice cream and cold steeped it in a bourbon barrel.  (Note:  This was definitely tied for first place as my favorite of the six-pack!)
3. Smoked Hefeweizen: Spin on Widmer Brothers’ world famous Hefeweizen by smoking wheat malts and steeping them into the cream to create a smoked hefeweizen ice cream.  (Note:  The other first place favorite of the six-pack!  Seriously, with Salt & Straw you can’t just pick one flavor!)
4. Hopped Farmhouse Ale: Based off of Commons Brewery’s “Myrtle Farmhouse Ale,” and used three different methods to steep the meridian hops in order to capture the bright aromas of peach and refreshing bitterness of grapefruit.
5. IPA Upside Down Cake: Captured the pineapple, citrus and piney hop flavors of Gigantic Brewing Company’s Imperial IPA by using hop-back technique to pull out the sweet and spicy hop flavors and adding a pineapple upside down cake infused with ho leaf and candied tangerine zest.
6. Bretta Fermented Pears and Fudge: Using Logsdon Farmhouse Ales’ famous Bretta yeast strain and inspiration from their “Cocoa Bretta Ale,” this carefully fermented pear juice and a malted fudge syrup to make a Bretta fermented Pear Wine ice cream with ribbons of Bretta Fermented, Malted Fudge.

Been to Salt & Straw?  What is your favorite ice cream flavor?