Beer Floats?

Nope, not for me.

But hey, the cool thing about the beer world is that everyone has their own tastes and preferences.

If you make it and enjoy it, who can really tell you you're wrong?

I know there are folks on BA who make stout floats, so really, beer and ice cream is a thing. I personally like a big stout and some fresh out of the oven oatmeal cookies.

Go for it, and let us know the results. I'm curious to hear what it's like.

 

I've done a float with Not Your Father's Root Beer (pre-buyout) and that was pretty darn good. Not sure about Busch; as mentioned above I'd say a stout would work best for something like that (I've also experimented a bit with French pressing beer which I've had solid results with, again using stouts).

 

Who would have thought combining Clam and Tomato Juice would make the glorious thing that is Clamato (who was the madman who came up with that?). Give it a shot and report back.

I personally made the mistake of eating some gummy bears between sips from a Mickey’s bigmouth 40oz back in college and discovered they are not complimentary - brings out the graineyness in the beer.

 

OP, you are doing it backwards. If you use the ice cream's flavorings to mix with Busch, which doesn't have a complimentary flavor IMO (or much flavor at all), you might as well just use soda water and have a true ice cream soda.

Making a beer float is common but the various flavorings that you find in a stout (if you want flavorings) is the way to go. My most recent beer float was vanilla ice cream mixed with Founders Maple Mackinac Fudge Stout. It was very tasty, but I would have enjoyed sipping that beer straight more than having it in a float.

If this thread does not produce much discussion for you, you can do a search for past threads because the topic comes up occasionally.

P.S. Welcome to the BA site.

 

I personally have not consumed a beer float but a few years ago some family/friends were visiting from Texas and they decided to make a beer float using vanilla ice cream and my homebrewed Oatmeal Stout. Judging from the smiles on their faces it would appear this was a tasty beverage.

Cheers!

 

https://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/bl...red-the-beer-milkshake-long-before-red-robin/

Just sayin'.

 

I've had some, mostly with chocolate stouts. Never been a big fan...but mostly I think floats are an ill-conceived gustatory invention anyway (for "effectively getting it into my mouth" reasons more than flavor reasons). Interesting idea might be trying it with some of the modern "fruit smoothy" sours (though I might go with a "shake" using a mixer instead of floating a scoop).

Regarding using Busch for this purpose...I'll confess, I'm not a fan of Busch. I could believe the addition of sweetness (and I'd assume vanilla, but you know...there's a lot of ice cream flavors out there) would be an improvement. But for me personally, I'd probably eat the ice cream separately.

I do like Hamm's, but I like it because it's Hamm's, and I think ice cream would reduce the Hamminess of the Hamm's and spoil the ice creaminess of the ice cream. I think thick, heavy stouts are a better match for the idea.

You do you, though -- just report back on your findings!

 

1. No judgment from me. I still drink a bunch of Busch Light at all times of the year and Leine's Summer Shandy on hot days.

2. Busch and vanilla beam ice cream doesn't sound like my cup of tea. I agree with the posters above that it seems like a stout or even certain sours would be tasty. If there are any mandarin-orange flavored fruity beers out there you could make a dreamy beer-sicle. (Or whatever you want to call it.)

3. All of that said, I don't have to drink it, so give it a whirl and let us know.

 

They were doing stout floats at GABF for a minute, and I recall reading about beer slushies around the time Randall the enamel animal became a thing. I've had fudge made from reduced stouts drizzled on ice cream and often pondered the float. I willnever do it. Why? Just gimme my beer. But reflecting back on all the crazy shit that people have done with beer over the years I suppose the pastry stout isn't as crazy as I thought.

 

Yeah, stout floats are tasty, not sure how good a Busch float would be. Give it a shot! Ya got nothing to lose but a can of Bush and a couple scoops of ice cream.

 

Hello @KoLbY13 and welcome to BA. Be sure to stop by the What Beer Are You Drinking Now (WBAYDN) and New Beer Weekend threads.

To answer your question; I've had a few beers that would be excellent with a high quality vanilla ice cream (no fillers, not ice milk). The ones that spring to mind are Hardywood's Christmas stouts and Sapsquatch (a maple barley wine from Southern Tier).

 

I tried a beer float with ice cream in a stout and it did not work for me at all. My eyes told me to expect the sweetness associated with root beer and the stout was decidedly not sweet, so I consider it an epic fail and waste of excellent stout. However, your experience might be different. All it costs you to try is an inexpensive beer (Busch?) and a few minutes of time to generate a story that you can tell in the future whether it works or not..

 

Try it and see. Not much of an investment if it doesn't work.

 

What sort of Stout?

Did you ever consider drinking a beer float that was made using a sweet stout (e.g., Cream Stout, Milk Stout, Oatmeal Stout,...)?

Cheers!

 

I did one when I was the Chef at Revival. This one was Red Ale and Ginger Ice Cream. It actually wasnt bad.

 

We enjoy a Beer Float each fall using Jenni's Ice Cream Salted Caramel & Boston Cream Pie and Cigar City's Good Gourd.

 

If you're looking for something that's guaranteed to work first time and every time, this is what you want.

 

You should definitely do it: Busch Light w/ French vanilla, Stouts with all sorts of flavors, etc.

I never found the single container route advantageous over a bowl of ice cream and a glass of beer separately.

 

I have some original Not Your Father's Root Beer (and yes, very good, maybe even better than when I first got it) and it makes excellent floats.
CBS (I'd think any stout aged in maple syrup barrels that had previously aged bourbon would be as good) makes for a surprisingly good milkshake. Just put the good ice cream in a blender and start adding CBS a little at a time until the flavors balance to your liking.
Now, 3 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of desecrating our beloved CBS in that way, but times change and we have to figure out what to do with all the 2019 4 packs stacked everywhere.