The world of craft beer is a-booming, and that's all well and good, but sometimes it can be hard to keep up. Quercus Vitis Humulus? What the heck is that? Where's the Kapuziner Schwarz Weizen I ordered last week?! And now that I think of it, what the heck was that, anyway? Don't worry. By familiarizing yourself with a few common terms and word roots, you'll be speaking fluent craft brew language in no time.

Because of Germany's rich brewing history, many names rooted in German words have been borrowed for beers or beer styles over the centuries. In German, Hefe means "yeast", and weizen translates to "wheat". This may seem like a no-brainer now that the hefeweizen has taken over tap towers at even the most pedestrian of pubs, but keeping those base words in mind will help determine other more unusual or esoteric styles as well, like weizenbock or kristalweizen; both wheat based beers.

Have you been known to turn your nose up at a salty feta? Do you think goat cheese tastes like dirty socks? Madame Fromage has put together a guide of gateway cheeses to help you jump on the bandwagon. 

"If you think you hate goat cheese . . . try Pantaleo, a Sardinian goat cheese without the goat flavor. It smells of citrus and tastes of pistachios, and is great for a midnight snack. Grate it over steamed asparagus and salads, or use it in pesto."

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Photo courtesy of nj.com

Trying to get your vegetables in for the day but still want a treat? Flayvors of Cook Farm in Massachusetts has created a unique combination of healthy asparagus and tasty ice cream. It might not be the most appetizing choice on the menu, but it’s a flavor you’ve got to at least try.

The taste of the ice cream isn’t overbearing, even though it is made with a whole pound of cooked asparagus per gallon of ice cream. Unfortunately the calories still exist, but who wouldn’t want to substitute a daily serving of veggies for a scoop of ice cream!

The spring months allow for an abundance of dairy in New York, which is good news for cheese connoisseurs! Learn how cheese (and other specialties) vary through the seasons below. 

Spring milk is typically characterized by floral notes due to the fresh nature of the herd's diet. The winter diet of silage, hay and cereal grains create a richer-flavored milk. This diet, combined with the concentrated milk output in colder months, lends a milk best used in more hearty cheese. 

If you know how lovely the pairing of peanut butter and bananas can be, wait until you hear this one: banana ice cream sandwiched between two soft, oat-peanut butter cookies. Aren't you happy you read this?

This ice cream may be my new favorite banana treatment, a simple reformulation of a standard ice cream base where bananas take the place of eggs. In a way the bananas are better than eggs, because you can toss them with with raw sugar and bake them for half an hour until they melt into a banana caramel sauce, and you could frankly stop the recipe right there as you lick it all up with a spoon.

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Photo by Max Falkowitz

Here at culture, we love our dairy and our craft beer. So naturally, when we heard about Salt & Straw's craft beer ice cream, we were intrigued. Would you try it? If you're local to Portland, Oregon, you can.

The flavors were created in collaboration with Portland brewers including Breakside Brewery, Gigantic Brewing Company, Hair of the Dog Brewing Company, Logsdon Organic Farmhouse Ales, The Commons Brewery, and Widmer Brothers Brewing—but that doesn't mean that the Salt & Straw team just dumped some beer in the freezer.

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Photo by Maggie Hoffman

As the temperature rises, the price of ice cream and other frozen desserts, such as gelato, seem to be rising as well. Artisanal ice cream parlors are popping up all over Europe and they come with a hefty price tag. How much would you pay for your chocolate chip cookie dough fix?

"A 64-euro (£54, $83) bill for four ice creams seems like a gross act of overcharging. And while most people would baulk at shelling out quite that much, many consumers in the UK are prepared to pay a premium for what they view as an "affordable treat" - be it a scoop of gelato or a freshly made artisan ice cream."

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Ditch the lumpy mess and say hello to modernist cuisine. James L. Kraft discovered that adding sodium phosphate to cheese as it melted could keep it from separating into solids and oil. Culinary scientist Scott Heimendinger explains how you can use the same science to melt any kind of high-quality cheese into delicious creamy goodness.

The chefs in our research kitchen have made mac and cheese with an intense goat gouda and cheddar sauce, for example, and build gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches using cheese slices that melt like the processed stuff, but are made from feta or Stilton.

If we had you hooked at "grilled cheese," wait until you hear about the garlic confit. Oh yeah, baby.

When garlic is gently poached in olive oil, it becomes sweet, with a subtle flavor. The cloves become so soft that you can spread them on your toast -- or in this case, in your grilled cheese sandwich.

Pair the mellow garlic confit with zingy baby arugula and a nutty, pungent aged cheddar, gruyère or fontina, and every luscious bite is mouthwatering.

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Photo by Viviane Bauquet Farre

If you follow a few main rules when it comes to beer and food pairings, you can create endless successful meals. These rules can also be applied to beer and cheese pairings, but always feel free to step outside the lines! You never know what will be a knockout pairing.

Craft beer and food work just as well, if not better, than food and wine. Crazy? Think again. Because of beer's broad range of flavors, elements, sensations and intensities, it provides both complementary and contrasting interactions that mesh with nearly any kind of food, whereas wine mostly contrasts against food when paired.

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Photo by Steven Depolo