Beat the Heat – Frozen Beer on a Stick and Beer Ice Cream
Welcome back!
Beer and hot summer days go hand in hand, just as beer does with ice cream. Say WHAT you ask? Yes, so you may just want to grab one the latest crazes to hit Virginia streets for frozen beer on a stick — a creation concocted by chef Frank Morales, at the Rustico Restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia, when he accidentally froze his cherry-flavored beer in the freezer and soon realized it made for a tasty treat.
The summer-time favorite ‘Hopsicle’ has made its come-back after the restaurant was granted permission to sell frozen beer on a stick.
As a base, Morales uses Belgian fruit beers that are low in alcohol and minimally hopped. The icy beer-infused treats are subject to beer availability and come in 7 flavors — framboise, cherry kriek, peche, cassis, banana, plum and the new and improved chocolate stout, at $5 a pop.
Morales whisks the beer thoroughly to drive off carbonation, adds chopped-up fruit and two “secret ingredients,” then heats the mixture to a boil. Once it’s cooled, he pours it into molds shaped like a cylinder, a cone, a star and a rocket ship.
The Hopsicles have a slightly slushy texture and an intense fruitiness, with the beer adding extra layers of flavors. The banana pop has a dry, biscuity maltiness, as well as a faint hop bitterness. The plum bears some of the earthy flavor typical of Belgian lambics — beers that are exposed to the atmosphere and fermented spontaneously.
Photo Electronic Alchemist
The brainchild of the brew pop by Frank Morales and Beer Director Greg Engert ruffled the feathers of the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) last year, citing numerous conflicts, and the control board prohibited Rustico from selling its brew pops which were selling like hot-cakes.
ABC regulations require the beverage to be “served in its original container or immediately after pouring.” The board amended the law on alcohol content in prepared foods, so Rustico is able to sell its brew pops once again.
Photo Erincooks
“As long as adults consume responsibly, government should certainly not over-regulate the inclusion of alcohol in food — or brew pops for that matter.” said Ebbin, a co-sponsor of the bill.
Morales’s original hopsicle recipes were made entirely from beer, but he changed them to incorporate other ingredients in an effort to appease the local liquor control board.
“Go into a restaurant that uses wine as a food ingredient and you don’t have these issues.” says Morales, who also uses beer in soups, potpies, ragouts and even a peanut-butter-and-beer-jelly sandwich.
The beer pops will be available through to September at the restaurant, located at 827 Slaters Lane.
Now that the restaurant can legally sell the hopsicle, the state is awaiting confirmation of the alcoholic beer-sicle’s legal status.
Beer Desserts
Beer may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think icy treats and desserts, but plenty of recipes and restaurants serving them abound with a plethora of microbreweries, restaurants, and pubs that brew their own blends — from honey to blackberry — putting beers on the dessert menu on a regular basis.
Strong, dark beers can have a noticeably bitter after taste, but many pair well with fruit to make sorbets. Dairy can mute the flavors of some malts, but also conceals lingering bitterness, so it pairs well with stronger ales.
Beer Ice Cream
Adding beer to ice cream recipe is no different from adding Grand Marnier. Instead of the ever-present cheesecake dessert, you can choose raspberry lambic sorbet served in a stemmed Belgian glass, or a triple decker treat of a fudge brownie and vanilla beer ice cream with porter poured on top.
Beer Ice Cream. Photo Tequila & Donuts
Brew Your Own
The Nibble presents instructions for concocting your very own beer ice cream at home.
Sweet cream, whipped and frozen smooth, is a perfect foil for malty, slightly bitter flavors of beer. Blended with chocolate, or tropical fruits, beer can be a good stand-in for other liquids in the typical recipe for ice cream. The how-to’s:
• Most ice creams start with a cream or dairy base: skimmed evaporated milk, custard, whole milk, yogurt or half and half.
• Add a sweetener, such as white or brown sugar, or even a reduced wort or malt extract syrup.
• Blend with a binder of some sort — eggs, gelatin, cornstarch or rice flour — especially if the recipe will incorporate fresh ripe berries or cut fruit. Cook the blend (a necessary step if raw eggs are used).
• Add other flavors (vanilla, chocolate, beer), stir well and chill. For best results, the cream base should be well chilled before freezing.
“It’s a little tricky to make a smooth, creamy malt ice cream from reduced wort.” said Darren Chadderdon, a former chef at Gordon Biersch’s Palo Alto brewpub. “If there is too much sugar in the wort, it will interfere with the fine ice crystal formation that you want in a frozen dessert.”
There are many types of beer ice cream, and the Daily Nexus offers their own information using stout beer:
• 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 can of Guinness or other stout
If you want vanilla, use a vanilla bean, and if you prefer chocolate, use 1 1/2 teaspoons of cocoa powder.
Boil the stout and the heavy whipping cream, and mix the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add the boiled mixture, whisking the entire time to temper the eggs. Add the entire mixture back to the pot, then cook and whisk until you have thick custard. Let your concoction cool and pour it into an ice cream machine.
Guinness Ice Cream. Photo Nicole Lee
The Food Network Web site features an Emeril Lagasse recipe for Guinness Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate-Honey Sauce — a blend of “cream stout” ice cream with chocolate swirls.
The rub on making icecream liquor is that ethyl alcohol solidifies at a much lower temperature (minus-173F) than water (32F / 0C), and even small amounts of alcohol will lower the freezing point of a solution. Beer cookbook author Lucy Saunders claims that “you’ll wind up with something that has more of a soft-serve consistency.”
Saunders’s website offers recipes such as Apricot Ale Frozen Custard and Spicy Spiked Ice Cream.
Photo Kanko
Reducing the beer will often boil away most of the alcohol, so in many cases, you can gorge on these delectables till you pop.
Kitchen manager-chef David Hickman creates peach and raspberry sorbets from Belgian fruit beers St. Louis Peche and Framboise, and an oatmeal stout-flavored chocolate ice cream, and then pours 8 to 10 ounces of beer on top. The raspberry float, served in a goblet glass, is a frothy, sweet-and-sour refresher. But he estimates his beer ice creams contain between 0.5 and 0.9 percent alcohol.
Beer Floats
With a deliciously cold beer in hand and a few scoops of luscious ice cream, what could be more refreshing than a beer float?
Beer Ice Cream Float. Photo Dan4th
The Daily Nexus says that not all beers make for great beer floats, but very sweet beers work best. The 2 best types of beer floats are the chocolate shake and the melted creamsicle.
To make the chocolate shake beer float, find a beer with some cocoa or chocolate flavors in it, which surprisingly is not as difficult to find as one may think. Add it to a tall glass filled with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream. If you want to go the extra mile, add some chocolate shavings or crumbs to the top. For chocaholics, substitute the vanilla ice cream for chocolate ice cream.
For the creamsicle concoction you want to find a honey flavored beer with citrus hints. A honey blonde or Hefeweizen should do the trick. Just like the chocolate shake, add the beer to a tall glass with vanilla ice cream in it. Sprinkle some nutmeg on the top, and you will be in creamsicle heaven.
Double Chocolate Stout Beer Ice Cream Float. Photo NPoell
If the thought of adding chocolate, fruit or spices to a beer puts you off, try using Guiness or any stout beer and vanilla ice cream. It won’t be as sweet as a beer float, but it’s a good stepping-stone for those who believe beer should be drank by itself.
Beer Milkshakes
Photo JB Curio
The guys from BiteClub lend their expertise to the mix of beer milkshakes:
1 cup ice cream
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp sugar (optional)
1Tbsp malt powder
3 Tbsp Samuel Adams Cream Stout (using a little more is fine)
You can use any type of beer, but a stouter beer lends a particularly nice chocolate and caramel tone.
Blend and serve.
You see the problem here. What kind of ice cream? BiteClub smelled a trip to the freezer section to find out and recommended Vanilla Haagen-Dazs, chocolate Haagen-Dazs, Hawaiian Lehua honey & sweet cream (a Reserve flavor from Haagen-Dazs), and coffee Haagen-Dazs.
Vanilla Beer Milkshake — a great, even flavor if not totally exciting.
Chocolate Beer Milkshake lends a nice bitterness and darkness to contrast the sweetness of the ice cream.
Honey Beer Milkshake — the experts claim it’s not terrible for a dessert. Spoon over your partner.
Coffee Beer Milkshake has an intense and robust flavor — the only milkshake that they could really taste the beer in.
Beer On A Stick Controversies
Sources: Metro, Washington Post, Slashfood, and Daily Nexus
As much as you might wish, one cannot live on beer and ice cream alone, so check out some radical barbecues along with some great BBQ recipes:
Barbecue Grills and Recipes for Real Men
Thanks for the link to the popsicles I made! Just for clarifications sake though they’re actually non-alcoholic Root Beer float pops, I guess you could always toss in some yummy Guinness
I have seen ice juice on a stick many times, but never an ice beer… I do believe that beer is much better when it is drinkable, while ice beer on a stick sounds just funny:))))
What a brilliant idea.
Polina, I don’t think that the beer pops would be much like you would expect them to taste like. They’re typically made with fruitier or sweeter types of beers. I think they would be worth a try at least. You might be pleasantly surprised
Erin, it’s the only right thing to do to link to your image when you’re so generous to share it, which I thank YOU for
Yes, I am aware that they were root beer pops, but it’s actually a great photo to depict any kind of pops in general.
Making you thirsty Jeremy?
mmm gotta love icee beer.
The beer ice-cream & beer float looks yummy!
I’m not so sure about beer milkshakes though.
Well the only real variation would be the manner of blending, Betshopboy. Think of it as a smoothie with a kick
Beer ice cream sound interesting though I dont drink beer or any alchohol stuff but I think I would surely like to try on this.
As much as I love beer, I don’t think have one frozen on a stick would taste that nice. Nice innovation though. If you did it with Cider, I’d give that a go!
Very interesting that they got beer to freeze. I don’t drink, but I’ve heard that it never freezes. That float sure looks good, but I’ll have mine with some Root(beer) in it!
True Monaivie, every time I’ve ever added fruit juices with alcohol for freezing, it’s always turned out as a ‘slushie.’ I used to love root beer pops as a kid, but they were very difficult to find.
Wow, there is not much more I’d need to have on a hot day, well, maybe a hot dog… yum…
My son JUST told me today that he wants to make root beer popsicles. I told him I’d never heard of it and he informed that people make them all the time. He’s 9!!!! When did he become so worldly?
So I’ll make the root beer pops for him…..and the beer pops for myself!
Your son is right, there is definitely such a thing as root beer popsicles, Uptake. I loved them myself as a kid. One version for kids and another for the adults
There is an ice cream store in New Jersey called Thomas Sweet that makes Guinness flavored ice cream. I was skeptical at first, but it tastes pretty darned good!
I’ve actually been hearing a lot of good things about Guinness ice cream, Ryan
My brother introduced me to Guinness ice cream. I was skeptical at first but it’s actually pretty good. I was presently surprised because I am not a fan of beer.
Intriguing concept, I like to try the beer float
This looks really good to eat! At our state fair, everything is served on a stick. This would fit in quite well. I’m anxious to try the recipe.
Beer popsicles and beer ice cream–they would be very cold, very cold indeed as the freezing temperture of alcohol is much lower than that of water—on a hot day, that may very well be the ticket. I use to mix vodka and lemon-lime ice cream, but could never get it to freeze in the freezer. I don’t understand how the popsicles could be made unless the alcohol content is extremely low, but then on the other hand maybe I put too much vodka in my ice cream–at that time in my life my motives were less than honorable. Again Deborah an unusual post and detailed.
Ron Russell’s last blog post..Second Amendment
This sounds really strange to me but I’d guess I’d give it a try. Living in Germany for 4 years, I saw a lot of strange beer mixtures like coke and beer and cherry syrup and beer. The best tasting though is lemon soda and beer which they call a radler. Touching on what Ron Russell said about alcohol having a lower freezing point, I’ve heard of people freezing hard cider to get at the alcohol sort of like distilling. Anyways very interesting read.
Of course I wonder if Jeff Dunham will add a new character to his comedy routine…. Jose jalapeno on a stick…
Beer popsicles are great, but not a new idea. It’s the recipe that makes one stand out over the others.
Wow. I know its getting into the cooler months, but I’ll have to keep this in mind for next summer. I can imagine that ice pops made with Lambics would be quite tasty! The rest of the stuff doesn’t sound bad either!
Scott-TheBrewClub´s last blog ..Dogfish Head Punkin Ale – Beer Review
These guys have been making and selling beer ice cream for over 10 years. Guinness, Sam Adams and Ten Penny Scottish Ale. Super rich not icy whatsoever.
Cheers