Beer, Ice Cream and Diary Farm Tour, oh my! {and an oatmeal stout ice cream float recipe}

This delicious Oatmeal Stout Ice Cream Float recipe is an amazing combo and contains only three ingredients!

Yes, you read that right…an ICE CREAM and BEER tour combined.

It doesn’t get much better than that folks.  

When asked if I could attend this tour, I thought “how could I possibly pass up an opportunity to eat ice cream and drink craft beer with fellow bloggers?!?”

So obviously my answer was YES! (Trying not to sound overly enthusiastic of course).  

Did you know that July is actually National Ice Cream Month AND Michigan Craft Beer Month?  

Yup, two products I love, as you’ll see evidenced by my delicious, indulgent recipe at the end of this post.

This delicious tour took place in beautiful Holland, Michigan. It was sponsored by Promote Michigan, New Holland Brewery and Hudsonville Ice Cream.

The focus was to see how milk travels from dairy farm to distribution.

This is a timely topic since more and more Americans are asking for local products and want to know where their food comes from. And many Americans don’t always realize their milk is local.

By the way, this tour was similar to the Michigan Pasture to Plate Tour I attended. During that tour, I saw how beef went from farm to plate.

Coming from the city these tours are so insightful into how food actually gets to our dinner table.  

Dairy Farm Tour

We began our tour at the Pyle dairy farm that is run by brothers who are the 6th generation to run this family farm.

They milk a little over 130 cows daily and supply their milk to Hudsonville Ice Cream and Laprino Cheese.  

And as you can hopefully tell by the photo below, the cows had plenty of room to roam or lounge around where ever they pleased.

Brewery Visit

Our next stop was New Holland Brewery which holds some of my favorite beers like the Poet Oatmeal Stout and Dragon’s Milk a bourbon barrel stout.  We also had the opportunity to eat delicious food paired with various beers. 

Trip to Hudsonville Ice Cream

Our last stop was Hudsonville Ice Cream, a small company that’s been in business for over 85 years.

Inspired by customers and food trends, Hudsonville Ice Cream has recently created a new line of ice cream called Hudsonville Naturals.^™  

This new line of products includes all-natural local ingredients with four favorite flavors: chocolate cocoa bean, vanilla bean, strawberry and salted caramel.  

And if you’re wondering why the strawberry flavor doesn’t look pink enough, it’s because it’s made with REAL strawberries.

So don’t worry, it still tastes just as delicious!

Interesting tidbits I learned from this tour

• Dairy farmers (or any type of farmer) can’t take entire family vacations because there would be nobody at home to run the farm/take care of the animals/run the business.  
  • Don’t forget that animals need to be cared for and fed daily!
• Most milk in Michigan only travels 50-60 miles from farm to distribution (stores).
• Codes on milk cartons that start with the number 26 mean that the milk came from a Michigan dairy farm.
• 98 percent of Michigan dairy farms are family-owned.
• Michigan is 7th in the nation for U.S. milk production.
• Hudsonville Ice Cream receives their local milk within 12 hours of the cows being milk — not that’s fast!
• New Holland Brewery has a distillery – which I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of!
• Anyone can paint with a little lesson and encouragement (see my picture below)!

Inspired by the beer and lunch pairings I enjoyed at lunch and from my painting, I couldn’t resist testing out a combination of beer and ice cream.  

It didn’t take long to come up with this ice cream stout float idea.  Just make sure to have a light dinner because this float is filling!

Check it out!

 What’s your favorite pairing of beer and ice cream or beer and food?  I’d love to hear your favorite recipes!

Disclaimer: I was not compensated to write this post, however lodging and meals were provided for this tour.  And as always, all the opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.

 This Beer, Ice Cream and Diary Farm Tour, oh my! {and an oatmeal stout ice cream float recipe} post first appeared on Chocolate Slopes.

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