Ice Cream And Beer Are Delicious Best Friends

Whitney’s Team Pick:

Beer! Ice cream! These are two of the best things, and they might be even better together. I once read a recipe for a Guinness ice cream float, which requires Guinness, vanilla ice cream and an optional splash of Bailey’s Irish cream (I should probably get on that right now). If you’re looking for something more like beer in your ice cream than ice cream in your beer, though, The Brewer’s Cow has got you covered.

The Brewer’s Cow makes beer-infused ice cream with flavors like Ten Penny Beer Nut Parfait, Black and Tan, and Bavarian Beer Brittle (and a yet-to-be-available Chocolate Truffle Stout flavor, which is what I would spring for).

via http://thebrewerscow.com/

The Beer Nut Parfait flavor includes beer nuts, Ten Penny Ale, chocolate fudge and vanilla caramel. I have no idea what beer nuts are, but they sound delicious. (Actually, I just checked and beer nuts are actually peanuts, which I am allergic to. So, maybe I won’t eat this re: fatality, but it sounds delicious in concept.)

via http://thebrewerscow.com/

The Black and Tan flavor is infused with Guinness Draught and contains a “decadent Munson’s Chocolate Truffle Fudge weave.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard of something that sounded so delicious and simultaneously sounded like a textile.

via http://thebrewerscow.com/

The Bavarian Beer Brittle is made with Sam Adams beer and Munson’s Bavarian Beer Brittle (which I have also checked, and it turns out it also contains peanuts; sad news for me, blissful news for the eight million Autostraddlers who avidly commented in the “10 Things That Taste Good with Peanut Butter” post — remember that one?). Anyway, if I may extend my imagining-what-peanuts-taste-like imagination, this sounds pretty amazing too — and the description of this flavor definitely sells it:

“The Brewer’s Cow Beer infused Ice Cream is a taste sensation that starts sweet and malty and finishes with the essence of your favorite brew.”

I find the lolcat font on the ice cream pint kind of hilarious. via http://thebrewerscow.com/

The last is the Chocolate Truffle Stout flavor, which does not contain peanuts (two out of four! not too bad) — instead it contains Thomas Hooker beer and chocolate truffle sauce.

The ice cream is a little pricy — for $79, (which includes flat-rate shipping) you get six pints of beer ice cream, which includes two pints of each flavor (except the Chocolate Truffle Stout). If you’re craving The Brewer’s Cow beer ice cream, you could probably go in and buy a pack with five other friends and fight to the death over which one is yours, gladiator-style. Or you could, you know, just share the ice cream. That’s what I hear people do these days.

An alternative is making a Guinness ice cream float at home, which is what I’ll probably end up doing, partly because of money but mainly because of the speed at which I can start eating beer ice cream (that is, immediately). All you have to do is take a few scoops of vanilla ice cream, top it off with Guinness and add Bailey’s Irish cream / whipped cream / chocolate fudge to your liking. Off you go!

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Whitney Pow

Whitney is a lover of food, books, comic books and journals made for left-handed people. They are a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University, where their research focuses on queer video games and new media. They are also a graphic designer, writer and editor who has worked for places like Opium Magazine, Literary Death Match, Publishers Weekly and The Feminist Press. Check out their website at whitneypow.com and follow them on Twitter @whitneypow.

Whitney has written 53 articles for us.

56 Comments

  1. I think I need to make a Guinness float to go with the amazing Guinness cake my girlfriend makes.

        • If someone’s girlfriend made them a Guinness cake shaped like a beer-themed hat, I think said girlfriend would win all of the awards forever.

  2. I’ve been making beer floats since college but everyone has always been super judgey and skeptical. So thank you, Autostraddle, for your culture of tolerance and inclusion. Side note: I’ve settled on beers that are on the lighter side in color and not too hoppy. So good.

  3. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in the beautiful state of Ohio does a great Guinness option!

  4. My family likes to tell this epic tale of the ONE time my mother got sick from drinking and it was that ONE time she had ice cream before getting drunk on beer. My mother is a nice, lovely and quiet little catholic woman who gets tipsy on one drink. My family is so badass.

    So the beer float recipe made my insides cringe, but the ice cream flavours look tastyyyyyyyy get in my mouth.

  5. I’m really sad that it’s too late for a Guinness float to be a viable lunch break option.

  6. @Danielle, I think beer floats are the bee’s knees! A restaurant in Greenfield, MA called People’s Pint makes an excellent stout float with locally made vanilla ice cream and their own oatmeal stout. It’s pretty much my favorite thing to put in my mouth…almost.

    • Greenfield has just been upgraded to “place I’d like to visit” from “place the Greyhound stops on the way to Montreal.” Only kidding of course, it’s always looked lovely from the bus window.

  7. Everytime I buy Guinness or Dos Equis – aka the good beer – someone steals it out of the fridge, always leaving behind some damn inferior bottles Bud Light or Miller Lite. What can I say: I like my beers foreign and my ladies domestic… but I digress.

    The Guinness ice cream float sounds yummy. Definitely will try it next time.

  8. I really don’t like beer, like at all. But I would be tempted to try one of these ice creams. Is whiskey flavored ice cream a thing? If nothing else, I am forwarding this on to my beer-loving, hockey-playing teammates.

    • Because you are important to me:

      Ingredients:

      4 egg yolks or equivalent amount Ener-G egg replacer
      1/2 cup sugar
      1 tbsp vanilla extract
      2 cups heavy cream of Soyatoo Organic Topping Cream
      2 cups whole milk or FULL FAT milk substitute
      3 to 4 shots Scotch whiskey (cheap blendeds work just fine)

      Directions:

      Combine egg yolks (or replacer), sugar, and vanilla extract in a small bowl and beat until the mixture is smooth and uniform in color. Set aside for now. 
      Combine cream and 1 1/2 cups of milk (or substitutes) in a saucepan and cook the mixture on medium heat, allowing it to simmer, and bringing it almost to a boil (not all the way). 
      In a large bowl, prepare an ice bath.
      Now do a back-and-forth transfer, adding the milk and cream to the egg mixture, and then once blended evenly, pour all of that back into the saucepan, and cook over low-to-medium heat until it thickens (a good way to gauge this is to determine when it will stick to a spoon). Add the remaining milk to chill it instantly, and also add the Scotch at this time.
      Now place in a medium bowl and immerse in the ice bath. Stir the mixture until it is chilled, and then transfer to a refrigerator for a few hours to let it completely chill. From here, place into an ice cream maker and freeze as per the directions listed on your ice cream maker.

      • Ice cream maker??? You win. I haven’t replaced my microwave that mysteriously fell apart one day recently while I wasn’t even in the kitchen. And no, I didn’t leave it on while sleeping…

      • Yay! Digger, you fucking rock! I am definitely going to make this for my team’s end of the season party (although I will have to improvise with the ice cream maker – pretentious ass recipe!). I am sure whiskey ice cream will be pure magic with the brownie’s I make using my grandma’s recipe. And hopefully it will impress the hell out of a certain someone!

        • Whiskey ice cream will bring a whole new meaning to body shots with your favorite lovely lady provided you don’t mind getting all sticky..And who would mind that!

      • Digger, you never cease to amaze me! All of a sudden I’m super excited about the ice cream maker thts been chillin in my storage closet for years! You ARE where the whiskey comes from…or at least the whiskey ice cream ;)

    • Yes, this. But if you are lazy/in a hurry, Ben and Jerry’s Bonnaroo Buzz has coffee and malt ice cream with whiskey caramel swirls and english toffee pieces. This ice cream is a good life choice.

  9. While beer ice-cream does sound delicious Americans really need to stop using the phrase Black and Tan about things related to Ireland.

    The Black and Tans are a British paramilitary unit that terrorized Irish civilians during the 1920’s. As in burning and ransacking villages terrorized.

    Now, back to ice cream. I would pick the Beer Nut Parfait Flavor.

  10. You know what would go great with this ice cream? The Irish Car Bomb cupcakes that I make when I need to impress people at parties. Guinness chocolate cake, Jamison ganche, and Bailey’s buttercream frosting. With a side of beer ice cream? I will make so many friends. Thanks Whitney!

      • You make the ice cream, I’ll make the cupcakes. Your birthday is coming, after all.

        • So I’m making the ice cream for my OWN birthday?? Well this is a whole lot of bullshit!

          • *Sitting back. Watching this unfold. Taking yet another bottle of whiskey out from under the bar to add to the “to pack for camp” pile* Hobbes, you and Ranger are “bunking” together. But don’t lose sight of where the whiskey will be coming from. Either one of you!

    • There is so much booze in those cupcakes I can’t even. Why have we not met yet and why are we not friends? :(

      • A-Camp my friend, A-Camp. It’ll happen. Although, they won’t let me bring cupcakes on the plane.

        • Maybe if you bribed the flight attendants and security? I’m sure they’d all love to try the cupcakes…

    • Damn, those cupcakes are IMPRESSIVE. I obviously need to find more creative ways to incorporate alcohol into my baked goods/desserts. I mean, rum cake can only take you so far.

    • How do I not know about these??? The only thing wrong with car bombs is that they’re gone too fast…I feel like I could spend some time with these cupcakes :) ::impressed::

  11. I just. I’m suddenly full of sadness for everyone with a peanut allergy. Autostraddle has opened my eyes and my heart once again. *has a moment*

  12. Okay, as a reprobate irishman and veteran of many a silly binge, this brings to mind meeting friends at 9am – we were all still drinking after two days – in Kerry about 10 years ago.

    One of them was particularly the worse for wear: as I asked him if he was okay, he hugged me and roared “it’s okay, I’ve had a Solero (nasty local ice pop) with every pint of Guinness so far today”

    Which meant 7 ice creams.

    Obviously with the passage of time, Ger is now posh as all hell ;-)

    • Soleros = best icecreams ever. And sure theyre only about three Weight Watchers points!

  13. This sounds horribleeee! Though I don’t think you could make Guinness taste worse so I guess icecream is an improvement.

  14. I love ice cream… and beer… But if I’m wanting an alcohol and ice-cream option, I’m thinking the multiple Irish Cream versions of Ben & Jerry’s will make me happy (mud pie vs. dublin mudslide). But if you are in Chicago, and must have Guinness ice cream, I think that Bobtail Ice Cream on broadway has a Seasonal Guinness flavor right now!

  15. I’m not a beer person (whiskey, please), however this makes me want to stick some Bulliet and ice cream in a blender and see what a bourbon shake tastes like.

    Ooooo, CAN THEY MAKE AN IRISH COFFEE ICE CREAM? That would be insanely tasty.

  16. What I had this weekend was pretty awesome: a shot or two of whiskey poured over key lime sorbet!!!

  17. Burger Bar in San Francisco has some awesome beer floats- the London Cloud is DELICIOUS and I want to reproduce it at home.

  18. Oh,you wonderful beer and whiskey drinking people. Why have we not met yet? I need someone to make me some of this and a sandwhich while there in the kitchen.

  19. Guinness milkshakes are also good. I’ve never had it but, Mark on St. Mark’s Place in NYC sells them.

  20. i made guinness brownies for my birthday tea party (it was a twirly dress/6 different kinds of tea/cakes on cake stands/fun and games type of soiree) the brownies were yum, if only i’d had the black and tan ice cream to serve with them…. dam it.
    x

  21. This is probably the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen. My weekend is officially set.

  22. Okay in reply to Ash, you are a genius, and I am gonna do that with Bulleit and ice cream later. WOW.

    As for any other notions: I had myself been drinking for 2 days at that point. The *thought* of a solero and a guinness made the world spin for me, and made the Glazed look on my mate’s face all the more disturbing.

    I love Guinness so much: and Ice cream. But combining the two seems sick and wrong.

    My ma did actually once try and make an irish coffee ice cream float: however she makes irish coffees so strong, I can only presume it was nice: cos none of us actually remember. Ahem.

  23. I can’t pass you by without recommending hot apple cider (the alcoholic kind, obviously) with vanilla icecream and cinnamon. Fizzz melt mmmm delicious.

    To go the whole hog, mix the vanilla icecream with a little soft butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and refreeze. Scoop a chunk into bubbling cider. Thus you have butterbeer :) five kinds of delicious, three kinds of geeky xx

  24. The idea of these sounded so fantastic, so beautiful… Alas, it was not to be. The combination of Guinness and ice cream results in something akin to a liquefied, fizzy version of the wax coating a nice Camembert. Not really my thang, in other words.

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