16 Mile, Pete Slosberg combine for Hot Fudge Sundae Stout

Vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and a cherry on top – the simple ingredients to a very popular dessert. And it's something 16 Mile is trying to replicate in a collaborative effort with craft beer pioneer Pete Slosberg.

The Hot Fudge Sundae Stout was Slosberg's idea. The Palo Alto, Calif., resident who's best known in the beer industry as the creator of Pete's Wicked Ale, was inspired to try the make the brew after a recent trip to see his father in Rhode Island.

“My dad loves hot fudge sundaes,” he said. “When I visit my dad we go to Friendly's. It was melting down his chin, dripping all over his shirt, but he was enjoying it. I've done chocolate beers, and I've done cherry beers, so I thought how about we put it all together?”

Slosberg brewed the beer with the 16 Mile crew and local chefs Jay Caputo and Lion Gardner Aug. 1 in Georgetown. The beer is expected to be available Sept. 1 around the region and at the brewery's tasting room. Slosberg has been out of the beer business since he sold Pete's Brewing Company in 1998, but he still enjoys joining forces with his friends in the industry. 16 Mile has agreed to send of few bottles of the beer out to him when its finished.

“It's got the creaminess, the chocolate character, the vanilla character, and it all sounds like a liquid hot fudge sundae,” he said. “To pull it all off is hard. The jury is still out.”

Claus Hagelman, director of sales and marketing at 16 Mile, said he's tasted the unfinished batch and thinks it's going to work out as Slosberg envisioned.

“The chocolate is definitely there,” he said. “The cherry and vanilla is very subtle. That's what we wanted it to be.”

Hagelman said 45 to 60 sixtel kegs will be distributed throughout the area, and a portion of the brew's sales will be donated to the Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse Foundation.

Slosberg's connection to 16 Mile comes through Hagelman, whom he met during his time at Dogfish Head. Through the years, the duo forged a friendship through their love of beer and have collaborated on a few occasions. Hagelman said he admired Slosberg's ingenuity well before his days at Dogfish.

“He's the father of the beer dinner movement,” he said. “When I was in the wine business, everyone was talking about this crazy guy running around doing beer dinners like they were wine dinners. I had done wine dinners because I was a wine expert, and I thought that was a cool idea.”

Slosberg said he had a similar admiration for what Dogfish Head and founder Sam Calagione was doing. He first met Sam at a beer festival in Montreal in 2003.

“I went up and introduced myself. I had read about him and just wanted to say, 'I love what you're doing,'” he said. “When I came back East we did a beer and chocolate dinner at the brewpub. Then I met Claus.”

The two connected with their shared love of the craft beer movement and have stayed in contact through the years. Slosberg opened Pete's Brewing Company in 1986 after taking an unlikely path to the industry.

“I never drank until I was 29,” he said. “I hated beer.”

He said his wife slowly introduced him to cheap wine, which he kept in the freezer to tone down the taste. After moving to California and developing a palate for wine, he decided he wanted to try his hand at making his own.

“Then it dawned on me that a cabernet has to be aged for five years,” he said. “I said screw it, I don't want to wait.”

He was convinced to try home brewing despite his dislike for commercial beers.

“I tried it, and God knows how bad my first home brew was, but I loved it,” he said.

It made him wonder how he could enjoy his home-brewed beer, but hate commercial beer. Research gave him his answer.

“I heard the commercial brewers only used 50 percent barley,” he said. “Barley is more expensive, and they use rice and corn adjuncts. That flavor combination is a turn off. There was flavor in the 100 percent barley malt that I really liked.”

Soon enough he was brewing his own beer on a larger scale. For 12 years, Slosberg owned and operated Pete's Brewing Company before selling it to The Gambrinus Company. Slosberg then opened a chocolate company called Cocoa Pete's Chocolate Adventures and later sold it as well. Lately, he's worked with a Clinton Foundation program that coaches inner city entrepreneurs, but he's not ready to retire just yet.

“I think there's one more business in me,” he said. “I just don't know what it is yet.”