The great beer float disaster

Bobsy · Post by **Bobsy** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:02 am

I've always prided myself on having a curious mind, and being open to new experiences, so last night I decided to create a beer float. I'd never heard of this concoction until recently, but the idea is to add a couple of scoops of ice cream to your glass of beer to create a delicious dessert. On my lunch break I ambled over to the Royal York lcbo to find a suitable candidate for my experiment. Initially I gravitated to the London porter, but recalling the chocolate flavours in the old engine oil, I opted for a bottle of that instead. I also picked up a 200ml bottle of French Cross to give a boost to the woodsy sausage and mushroom risotto we were having for dinner, but that's a different and altogether more appetising tale.

Two scoops of sobey's finest French vanilla in my mill street pint glass, and I'm good to go. The aromas from the opened engine oil smell tempting, and for a moment I consider just drinking the beer and then eating the ice cream on its own, but the quest for knowledge is too powerful a drug. The engine oil hits the ice cream and immediately kicks up a huge rocky tan head. Rocky is probably an understatement - there are bubbles in there the size of marbles. At the bottom of the glass the beers slowly seeping past the ice cream, loosening its grip to the bottom. All of a sudden the ice cream rises from the deep and surfaces like a u-boat.

The aroma? Do I detect vanilla? Yep. Definitely some vanilla in there. A hint of roast and chocolate gets me thinking this could be good. Too bad it looks like a glass of diarrhea topped with whipped cream. The taste is god-awful. The first 3 inches of liquid seem to be head, and I've never liked head on its own (said Mother Theresa to the Pope). The bitterness of the beer is really accentuated by the alternating sweetness of the ice cream. Putting a spoon of French vanilla in my mouth I quickly realise why carbonated ice cream is not available at the grocery store. Soldiering gamely on I can see that the concoction is settling into a strange mid pour Guinness appearance (you know...while its still settling). The only problem is that the upper levels seem to be solids in suspension. Bad memories of birthday shots float around in my mind. The liquid is now getting way to sweet, but the slickness at least is interesting. The vanilla is getting to strong, and I'm getting worried about the disgusting top layer that awaits when all other hope has gone. Its already given me a Guinness mustache, but now I'm worried that it will wreak havoc with my stomach too. This beer is going down the drain one way or another, and I figure its best coming from the glass.

This is worse than the float disaster at the end of Animal House.

JesseM · Post by **JesseM** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:36 am

Hahahahahaha

.

If it's any consolation, you've successfully deterred me from ever trying anything remotely similar to this.

xocoatl · Post by **xocoatl** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:53 pm

I once had what they call a 'stout float' at the heuther hotel in Waterloo. They used their own stout which I beleive they brew, vanilla ice cream, and some chocolate brownie on the bottom.

I quite liked it, and have repeated something close using a guinness at home.
I poured the beer first and let it settle, then added the ice cream. Used a spoon to first eat the ice cream, then drank down the beer which had a creaminess and vanilla taste from the ice cream.

Not something for everyday, but worth trying once.

kinguy · Post by **kinguy** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 1:09 pm

I've done beer floats a number of times, using the same process as xocoatl, but I've always used a chocolate porter or chocolate stout and have enjoyed it every time. I've never tried it with a normal stout or porter.

Except for once, I've always created the concoction at home, but the one time I tried it in a restaurant, the Rock Bottom in Denver for enquiring minds, the waiter wasn't surprised and said he'd seen many others do the same.

Torontoblue · Post by **Torontoblue** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 1:19 pm

Bobsy, you wanna get yourself over to the UK and try some ice cream from Timothy Taylor. They have done all the hard work for you and created a Landlord Ice Cream

How nice would that be, eh?

Bobsy · Post by **Bobsy** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:31 pm

Torontoblue wrote:Bobsy, you wanna get yourself over to the UK and try some ice cream from Timothy Taylor. They have done all the hard work for you and created a Landlord Ice Cream

How nice would that be, eh?

The beer ice cream at BeerBistro is particularly good. Maybe I should have frozen and churned the remainder of my mess, but I'm afraid my stomach had done enough churning for two.

lister · Post by **lister** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:45 pm

C'est What? has a beer float though I haven't tried it yet.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:25 pm

I wonder if the "Sobey's finest" had anything to do with the ice cream disintegrating in the beer. You do not want to put "fake" ice cream to the test in this way.

Most ice cream is fantastically artificial nowadays. It is over-processed milk solids with water and various gums and syrups and sugars etc. added to fill out the body, and THEN blown full of nitrogen to cheaply increase the voume in the container. You are eating "fake sugary ice foam crap" most of the time. Let a 250ml cup of ice cream melt down to 125 ml if you don't believe it.

It doesn't even resemble 'food' when melted, let alone 'cream.' It is even uglier dissolved in a carbonated drink, with all those air pockets escaping the gummy frozen gunk!

The only ice cream I "believe" in eating is one based mainly on pure cream (not milk solids) with fewer adjuncts, and real flavors and not blown full of nitrogen gas.

Ben and Jerry's ice cream is the nearest wide-distro thing you can buy that resembles traditional ice cream - don't fall for the size of the package, feel the big weight difference.
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Now I want to try fudge ice cream in Oak Aged Yeti...

sphilp · Post by **sphilp** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:31 pm

I've only ever made a Guinness Float, and it was delicious

Jan Primus · Post by **Jan Primus** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:33 am

Not that Belgian is wrong...but I think the wrong beer was used. I think you should have gone with the Fullers porter, it is the most desert-like beer I have tasted.

Jan Primus · Post by **Jan Primus** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:34 am

sphilp wrote:I've only ever made a Guinness Float, and it was delicious

What type of ice cream did you use?

Jan Primus · Post by **Jan Primus** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:42 am

Despite my comments in this thread I'm still not brave enough to risk ruining a perfectly good beer and scoop of ice cream...no beer float for me.

StevenThrasher · Post by **StevenThrasher** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 11:23 am

Should I try St. Bernardus Abt 12 with the finest very dark chocolate ice cream? I've always thought this is the closest beer equivalent to the most decadent chocolate cake.
Or would Peter get get too offended and refuse sell this beer to me from then on?

Jan Primus · Post by **Jan Primus** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:07 pm

Thats not sounding appatizing at all to me ST...but ymmv?

StevenThrasher · Post by **StevenThrasher** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:01 pm

Yeah. I suspect it would be terrible.
Better to eat the cake and have the beer. But that beer is a dessert in and of itself anyway.