Yuengling's Black & Tan Ice Cream is worth dishing on

The Yuengling family has brewed up a great ice cream idea.

Today might just be the hottest day of the summer — time for some ice cream.

And what a batch of ice cream do we have to taste: Yuengling's Black & Tan. Yes, that's Yuengling as in the Pennsylvania folks who make the green bottled beer that half the country wishes it could buy.

As the story on the back of the ice cream carton goes, the Yuengling family started a dairy operation during Prohibition when they couldn't sell strong suds on the up-and-up. That creamy business continued for nearly seven decades before being phased out at some point. Then recently, they decided to bring it back.

Thank goodness they decided to milk this line of business further.

I'm no aficionado of fancy ice cream — Ben & Jerry's is fine, but I'd just as soon have a bigger crate of cheaper stuff. Yuengling, however, has made a tremendous creamy, filling, rich frozen treat that's equally perfect for a quick midday cool down or end-of-night bowl. In short, it's rich without being too rich.

My flavor of choice, the black and tan, swirls Belgian chocolate with salted caramel in the same container. Both are exquisite, with the chocolate exhibiting some bitter tones and the caramel tending more toward the sweet than the salt.

Still, the caramel side really shines. Just when you think it's getting too sweet, there's a kick of NaCl to bring you back to the table.

If you're looking for downsides, pricing and sizing are the only things you'll find. The Yuengling carton is smaller than your standard ice cream carton, measuring a quart. It's a bit pricier, too. Let's just say I didn't get as much change back from a $5 bill as I'd have liked.

Still, I'd call it a small price to pay. Cheers to Yuengling's ice cream, which churns out an extremely impressive four sporks out of five.