Introduction: Beer Ice Cream

By
About: "no" -Rosa Parks

Eating this delicious ice cream is much more satisfying than just drinking beer straight out of the bottle and would taste absolutely amazing sandwiched between two cookies or served on top of chocolaty brownies. For the ultimate ice cream, try sprinkling bacon bits on the top or covering the ice cream with decadent chocolate shell, yuuum!

Step 1: Gather Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 5 egg yolks
  • 12 oz of beer (one bottle)
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • about 1/4 cup sugar
  • a pinch of salt (optional)
  • a splash of pure vanilla extract(optional)

For this recipe you will need one bottle of beer. I asked Bricobart himself and he suggests using a dark beer because the end result will be sweeter. You should use a malty beer versus a hoppy beer because the hops in the beer will turn bitter when cooked whereas malty beers become sweet. Think of a malt shake or Whopper malt candies, they're all very saccharine. I highly recommend asking an employee what beers that they recommend when shopping. I went to my local Whole Foods and picked up this Vanilla Porter that the employee recommended to me because he said it was very sweet and is great for desserts.

Since all beers are different, you might need more than 1/4 cup of sugar. I would start off with 1/4 cup and then add more as needed. Same is for vanilla and salt. Vanilla and salt can definitely enhance the flavors of the ice cream but sometimes they aren't necessary. I didn't need any vanilla extract when making ice cream with Vanilla Porter because it already contains some vanilla flavor. However sugar, salt, and alcohol can inhibit freezing so I would definitely rather use too little than too much. The main flavor of the ice cream should be beer, not sugary vanilla, so don't overdo anything.

Enough talking, let's get started!

Step 2: Making the Custard Base

1. Start off by whisking the egg yolks and sugar together until they turn a pale yellow. At the same time heat the milk and cream in a saucepan on low heat, stirring occasionally. Once you notice the milk and cream mixture has formed a slight layer of "skin" like in the third picture, take it off the heat.

2. Pour a small amount of the hot milk mixture into the eggs and whisk at the same time. You want to spoon in a little bit of the hot milk mixture at a time and continue whisking or else you could be left with scrambled eggs instead of a creamy custard.

3. Once the two mixtures are combined, pour back into the saucepan and heat on low. This process thickens the custard and will make the ice cream more creamy, however you don't want the temperature to go above 185 degrees Fahrenheit or else you risk the egg in the mixture turning into small chunks. I recommend using a cooking thermometer and taking the mixture off of the heat when it reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don't have a thermometer you can tell when the custard is done when it is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon. Congrats, you've just made some custard!

Step 3: Straining and Chilling

1. Run your custard mix through a sieve to get rid of any chunks of egg that may have formed. This step is optional but highly recommended .

2. Place the custard in the refrigerator to chill while working on the next step.

Step 4: Reducing the Beer

1. Pour one bottle of beer into a saucepan and heat on the lowest setting. This will reduce the amount of water and alcohol that is in the beer. You still want some alcohol to be in the ice cream but too much can keep the ice cream from freezing. I reduced my beer to a little more than one cup. If you are using any vanilla or salt, stir it in now.

2. Take the custard base and stir the reduced beer mixture into it. Place into the refrigerator and chill for at least 8 hours. I chilled mine for a full 24.

Step 5: Ice Cream Maker

1. Now run the beer custard mixture through your ice cream maker. Every ice cream machine has different instructions so follow the ones that come with your machine.

2. Once the mixture gets bigger and looks like ice cream rather than a liquid, take it out of the machine and spoon it into an container with a lid and place it in the freezer for at least 5 hours. You could technically eat it right out of the machine but it will be very soft and not in my opinion, not worth it.

But wait, what if I don't have an ice cream machine?!

Unfortunately, you can't make beer ice cream without an ice cream maker if you're using my recipe. However you can pour the beer-custard mixture into popsicle molds and make creamy popsicles. If you are really interested in making ice cream I suggest going on Amazon and buying an ice cream maker. I got mine for less than $30.

Step 6: Enjoy!

Spoon a few generous scoops of ice cream into a cone and enjoy! This ice cream would be a great addition to your next barbeque or just a treat to eat by the pool. If you enjoyed this Instructable please take a second out of your day to vote for me in the Beer Contest!

Eat your ice cream responsibly,

Thederpyninja

Featured Author Contest: bricobart

Grand Prize in the
Featured Author Contest: bricobart

squeeze more awesome out of summer contest

Participated in the
squeeze more awesome out of summer contest

Teach It! Contest Sponsored by Dremel

Participated in the
Teach It! Contest Sponsored by Dremel

Summer #mikehacks Contest

Participated in the
Summer #mikehacks Contest