How To Make A Beershake

The first time I heard about a beer milkshake was reading John Steinbeck's Cannery Row about 3-4 years ago.  In the book, the character 'Doc' keeps thinking about a beer milkshake and how he's afraid to order it because people might give him flak for it and think he's crazy.  After a traumatic experience he finally orders one using the excuse 'My doctor told me to do it' and gets his beershake which he says tastes like a milky, flat beer.

Beer appreciation and experimentation has come a long way since the end of Prohibition, and the idea of a beer milkshake is not so crazy anymore.  If you're interested in doing it yourself, here's how I do it.

The Beer

You do not want to do a milkshake with an IPA or a lager.  You could, but you could also technically eat a television.  Possible, but not advised.  I tend to stick to the stouts and porters for my shakes since they tend to have strong malty aromas, vanilla flavoring to a degree, and are nice and thick.

Although any good stout will do, I go the extra mile and head for the chocolate varieties.  Specifically I go for Rogue's Chocolate Stout since it's readily available.  Young's and Brooklyn Brewing both make a really good chocolate stout but I have a preference for Rogue.

Something I have been meaning to try as well are the coffee porters.  I recently thought of including coffee porter in a shake after trying Iron Spring's Coffee Porter at my local pub which, I gotta say, is re-goddamn-diculous.  I drank a few of those every morning I went down to see the World Cup and I can't think of a better morning beer at this moment, or at least a good morning porter.

The Ice Cream

You already decided to go the extra mile by buying a nice beer, don't skimp out and buy a crappy ice cream.  This is dessert, treat it as such.  It would suck to ruin a great beershake by using Dreyer's Ice Cream.  Not that Dryer's is bad, it's just that I like to go the extra mile for dessert.

Go to your supermarket and look for a pint-sized container of French Vanilla ice cream.  Even if you're not a fan of the little speckles in it or the overwhelming vanilla flavoring, trust me, it will go great with the beer.  Since specialty ice creams vary by region I'm not going to list any, but just look for the pint-sized vanilla ice cream adorned sometimes with words like 'organic' or 'family owned.'  You are on the right track.

Making the Beer Shake

Foam galore! Augh!I made the mistake of putting in the ice cream first when I did it my first time.  Beer reacts to ice cream a lot like root beer does — it foams like crazy.  As you can see from the ones that I made that the head on the thing is HUGE and you might have to snort a cubic liter of foam just to get to the beer and ice cream.

Pour the beer into your glass first, leaving enough room for ice cream.  Scoop out some ice cream, put it in, and enjoy!  I like to pre-freeze my glassware for this since it gives the glass a nice look and keeps it cold that little bit longer.  Make some freezer space and wow your friends.  Like a root beer float you will be wanting a spoon to get some of that ice cream at the bottom and to help break it up.

Well, that's it!  I hope you find the time to make one at home and enjoy them as much as I do.

Comments

[Rogue Chocolate Stout]

Thanks for choosing Rogue Ales Chocolate Stout, which has me on the label! Rogue's Public Houses have ice cream floats on the menu, using RCS or Hazelnut Brown Ale (a combination of the two is really nice!). I also blogged about ice cream floats awhile back, giving a shout out to NoCalif Chef Bruce Aidells and his Oct 2009 article in Bon Appetite. http://roguechocolatestout.blogspot.com/2009/09/having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too.html

Maltier beers make a great ice cream ~ try a beer float made with a beer ice cream! I helped make a jalapeno brownie infused Rogue Chocolate Stout Ice Cream with Austin at 1702 in Tucson a few yrs ago for a promo...He used 18% butterfat ~ it was rich and spicy ~ I took a pint home to my brothers and the the next morning put a scoop in my ice coffee, that was amazing!

[Nor Cal Beer Guy]

That sounds delicious! Reminds me of these Irish friends of mine who made Bailey's Ice Cream one night, I bet that would put me over the top paired with a coffee porter. (Great label by the way;)

[Brett]

For an added bonus, add a shot of espresso to the shake. The bitterness compliments perfectly and gives you a little pick-me-up. Alcohol, sugar and caffiene, my three favorite drugs.

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