SLO LIFE Jun/Jul 2017

SLO Brew
JL: For the sweet stuff, we walk a couple blocks over to
SLO Brew downtown, where treats like the beautiful Beer
On Beer Brownie Sundae and Oat Wrangler Float are
calling your name, Brant.
BM: I’m usually not one for sweet treats, preferring my
unnecessary calories in liquid form, but hey, when you
have a chef cranking out beer-infused desserts, you have
my attention. I’ll begin with the one that’s melting in
front of my eyes, the stout float. Simple, yet decadent.
The key feature here is SLO Brew’s Great American Beer
Festival bronze-medal-winning oatmeal stout, Feelin’
Your Oats. It’s already creamy and wholesome, but then
it’s kicked up a notch by being served on nitro with a
scoop of vanilla gelato thrown in. If you like cream in
your coffee this is for you. The complementing cookie has
a light sea salt sprinkle on top, which gives you a great
break from the sweetness, but makes you want to go back
for another sip.
JL: Did you really just call stout “wholesome?” Nice.
Another wince-worthy fact: I don’t eat sugar (insert
shrugging emoji), which is why it’s so handy to have a
sweet-toothed husband who will happily taste any bit
of sweetness I put before him—especially beer-infused
sweetness—and report on his findings. My guy gives
serious props to Chef Thomas Fundaro for the decadent
Beer on Beer Brownie Sundae, made with that same
award-winning oatmeal stout you mention. He says
it’s fudgy and moist, rather than cakey, with a depth of
flavor that can only come from a creamy, yeasty stout: like
rafting on a brownie over a river of beer.
BM: Your husband has a way with words and an open
mind—let’s just hope he doesn’t take your job! I am
very excited about the prospect of tasting beer in every
component of the brownie dish and think Chef Thomas
does a great job transforming carbonated, malty liquid
into a decadent dessert. What impresses me most is the
IPA caramel sauce, not just for the salty/sweet combo, but
for the punch of hops letting you know it’s just as much a
part of the dish as anything else. Drinking their hopforward
West Coast IPA while noshing, it’s fun to taste
the dish’s components separately and pick out the flavors
that each beer imparts to the food. At this point I am
sufficiently stuffed and don’t know if I can take another
bite... but that warm cookie and remnants of a cold shake
are still sitting in front of me, so I continue switching
back and forth between the beers and the desserts trying
to make up my mind which one I like more.
JL: And what have you decided?
BM: I’ve decided that our fresh, local beers are great
for drinking, but eating beer is just as fun. Just one
more bite... SLO LIFE
90 | SLO LIFE MAGAZINE | JUN/JUL 2017