Beer ice cream

Have you ever considered beer ice cream? The combination of ice cream and beer sounds tempting on hot days, but beer ice cream is not that easy to track down. For this reason, we've decided to make it ourselves! We have a great, simple recipe that everyone can manage. Even if you don't have an ice cream machine at home or are not a master chef, you can make this!

Beer ice cream recipe

Ingredients for beer ice cream

300ml beer
100g sugar
2 egg whites
Juice of ½ a lime

Preparation of beer ice cream

1. First, beat the egg whites and sugar together until stiff.
2. Then add the lime juice.
3. Now slowly stir in the beer.
4. Put the finished mixture in a bowl. We recommend a bowl that is twice the size of the liquid. A baking dish or mixing bowl will work fine.
5. Then place the bowl in the freezer.
6. Wait until the mixture has frozen a few inches at the edge. The duration of this depends on the performance of your freezer and the size of your bowl. We recommend taking a look inside the freezer after around 1.5 hours.
7. When the mixture is frozen on the edge, take the bowl out of the freezer and stir it with a sturdy whisk. You should also remove any mix that has stuck to the edge. In this step, it is really important that you beat air into the mixture, you want it to be light and airy.
8. Then you put the bowl back in your freezer and repeat this process 2-3 times. You can now do this with shorter intervals.
9. When a soft ice-like product has formed and you are satisfied with how it looks, you can transfer your beer ice cream to another container for storage or enjoy it right away.
10. If you want to enjoy your beer ice cream straight away, put a few scoops in a pre-chilled glass - preferably in a beer glass, of course.

Tip: Pour a little cold beer over your ice cream and it's ready.

What beer to choose

The beer you choose will affect the flavour of the final product. For example, a light beer such as lager or pilsner will not impart a particularly strong flavour. Rather, a more subtle, mellow taste. A darker beer like a stout or porter on the other hand can give your ice cream more rich, heavier and malty flavours. Lots of stouts and porters have notes of caramel, coffee and chocolate that is worth considering. Similarly, a pale ale or IPA will create a bitterness which can be a good to balance the sweetness.

Beer ice cream float

We also have a recipe for the ultimate guilty pleasure, the ice cream float. This recipe for beer ice cream floats is strictly for adults only. As we suggest above, one option is to put the beer ice cream in a chilled glass with the same beer you used to make it, poured over. However, another option is taking a decadent coffee ice cream and pairing it with a dark, complex porter. Actually, any porter or stout with espresso or chocolate notes will taste phenomenal. Raspberry lambic and chocolate ice cream or white beer and orange sorbet could also work. Or a German wheat beer and a berry ice cream such as strawberry could also will be an interesting combination. This is great opportunity for experimenting, just remember the fundamental pairing rules. Always pair strong flavoured beers with strong flavoured ice cream. The same goes for light beers and milder ice cream flavours. 

Use the same method, put a few scoops of ice cream in a chilled glass and pour the beer over.