Ben & Jerry’s gets some backlash for making ice cream beer with New Belgium

Beer and ice cream lovers everywhere began salivating Thursday at the announcement that Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing and ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s are planning to collaborate on an ice cream-flavored beer to be released this fall called Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale. But apparently not everyone is so impressed.

The USA Today reports some are bashing Ben & Jerry’s for the decision, making the leap that the company that often stands up for social and environmental issues is turning its ice cream into a gateway vice to beer by placing its branding on a sudsy beverage.

“It’s bad for children — who will start looking at beer as the next step after ice cream,” Bruce Lee Livingston, executive director and CEO of alcohol industry watchdog group Alcohol Justice, told the newspaper.

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For Ben & Jerry’s and New Belgium’s part, the companies are both certified B Corporations, which must strive to be socially and environmentally friendly in addition to making profits. The press release announcing the collaboration Thursday noted the companies’ similar values in championing causes like sustainable agriculture and minimizing carbon pollution, and that the new beer will be used as a platform to further such environmental awareness.