Has anybody ever tried this?
(A glass of beer with a chunk of hard ice cream in it)
If so, what was it like?
[sup]I’m going to assume that this offends beer purists who would tell me that it’s sacrilege or some such; if this includes you, please don’t bother posting[/sup]
Golly, no, I haven’t tried that. Sounds not so good!
A friend of mine was in Japan once. He passed a restaurant which had one of those little window displays with the food dioramas in it–they get wax steak, or sushi, and put it on plates so people will see what the food looks like. He saw what looked like a root beer float. Damn, he thought, that sounds pretty good right now.
Turns out the proprietor didn’t speak english and had just seen a picture of a float in a magazine, then took his best guess as to what it was.
Iced tea with whipped tofu.
My first reaction to the idea of a beer float was one of mild disgust, but then I started thinking… Ice cream goes just fine in a coke float, as the milk doesn’t react too badly with the phosphoric acid and complements the carbonation. The best beer I ever made was a special “Christmas Brew” and the recipe called for a couple of pounds of Chocalate. Hmmmmm.
I am not sure the idea would work too well with light domestic lagers like Budweiser or Miller, but if it was a heavier darker and creamier beer like Guiness… Hmmmmmm.
I’d need to find a light chocalate ice cream (something that isn’t too overpowering or rich), maybe even just vanilla with a dash of Hershey’s. Hmmmm.
Maybe I’ll try it this weekend and let you now.
-Beeblebrox
“Zaphod grinned two manic grins, sauntered over to the bar and bought most of it.”
Ooh, not sure about Guinness, but as it was me that asked the beer purists not to rant, I’d better shut up.
I definitely had vanilla ice cream in mind and maybe something like Boddingtons (which is fairly rounded in flavour) for the beer.
I’m gonna try it tonight, let you know how it went tomorrow.
Now, ice cream in a wine cooler might actually be pretty nice…
At the risk of getting my CAMRA membership revoked, I will admit that I’ve done this with varied results.
Boddingtons with vanilla is good, as is vanilla with a raspberry or blueberry-flavored wheat beer. While this is good, and sweet enough to not offend either beer drinkers or wusses, the real genius lies in going darker, more mysterious…
and doing it with stout. Molasses ice cream (if you can get it) or caramel or dulce de leche ice cream with a good dark stout or porter borders on heavenly. While I won’t do this to my beloved Guinness(too bitter and I think they’d take away my RSI number if they found out), Murphy’s or Brooklyn Brewing Company’s Chocolate Stout are excellent choices. What you get if you go either the fruity or the stout route is a lump of ice cream that slowly disintegrates while you drink it. Ideally, these should be served both with a straw and a spoon, so you can drink the melted ice cream/beer as well as scooping up bits of ice cream.
God I’m strange.
I’ve had a Guinness ice cream float with various flavors. The best seems to be a strong vanilla, with chocolate coming in a close second. The worst was strawberry, but only because nobody had the guts to try mint chocolate chip. 
Berkshire Brewing Company’s Drayman’s Porter…
with a scoop of Haagen Dazs Chocolate on top.
Turns out that the boys from BBC ended up in a booth next to the Haagen Dazs folks at a food/beverege show. They pulled the ol’ “you got your peanut butter in my chocolate” routine with beer and ice cream.
Now the Drayman’s Porter Haagen Dazs Float is the signature dessert at the beer dinners for our restaurant in western Mass…
And boy is it yummy!
Do it at home with a nice, rich chocolaty porter (co2 based dark beer, basically) and the highest quality, dense chocolate ice cream around. OR (there I said it, Guinness would do it, which is a stout) in a pinch, stout.