Words by Diane Catanzaro and Chris Jones
Photo by Diane Catanzaro
Beer, glorious beer. Is there anything beer can’t do? From appetizer, to main course, to dessert, beer has the culinary chops to enhance any part of your meal. Yet, beer is often overlooked for the starring role in dessert. Mentioned beer and dessert in the same sentence and you get reactions ranging from raised eyebrows to pearl-clutching. “Can’t you people think about anything else but beer?” Well, we could, but if you have not incorporated beer into your dessert you’re missing out!
Beer is a surprisingly versatile partner for dessert. Even people who aren’t beer fans will enjoy a classic Guinness cake, with recipes easily found on the internet like the one featured in the May 1, 2024 New York Times cooking section. Any stout could substitute for the Guinness, including an imperial stout like Wicked Walter from Benchtop or Big Ugly’s Apehanger, an oatmeal stout like New Realm’s Oatorious, or a dry stout like MoMac Brewing’s P-Town Dry Irish stout. You can use any stout you enjoy from your local brewery instead of Guinness and your cake will be just as delicious.
Some beers are a dessert themselves. The Garage’s No Carrot All is like a liquid alcoholic carrot cake. Bold Mariner’s Coffee Cake Blonde is a lively light-bodied ale with big flavor suitable for dessert or breakfast. Alewerks Pumpkin Ale (regular and imperial versions) is like a swan dive into pumpkin spice bliss. You can pair these respectively with carrot cake, coffee cake, or pumpkin pie. You might expect it’s too much ‘same’ but there will actually be a symphony of flavor, as the beer will have enough refreshing contrast and carbonation to pair well with the matched cake. Or, you can serve these spiced ales with a coconut macaroon, candied pecans, gingerbread, blondie, or crème brûlée. Another sure-fire pairing is an imperial or bourbon barrel stout from any 757 brewery and anything-dark-chocolate like brownies, chocolate cake, chocolate pie, chocolate cupcakes, dark truffles, or Lacey’s scrumptious dark chocolate florentine style cookies from Trader Joe’s. Be sure you pour the beer into a wine glass, snifter, or other special glass and savor the way the aromas and flavors of the beer and the sweet enhance each other.
But, if you want a dessert with beer as the unabashed star, may we suggest a beer parfait? Ice cream gets equal billing. There are many variations on this theme, all of them delicious. The major ingredients are beer (of course!), fruit, cookie or cake, a super-premium ice cream, and chocolate syrup. You typically want the beer to be lower-alcohol, because the alcohol will melt the ice cream and then you have a beer milkshake. Which isn’t a catastrophe, but ideally you want the ice cream to last for as long as possible. A super-premium ice cream like Haagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s is denser and will work much better for your beer parfait.
Here is a favorite:
Cherry Pop
Ingredients:
- One 14 oz can of Oregon Brand red-tart or dark-sweet cherries is best. You can use ripe supermarket cherries, pit to get the cherry meat separated (we have a cherry-pit-remover, but you can use a knife). With fresh cherries ballpark at least 5 pitted cherries per person, cut in 2 or 3 pieces.
- Pint of Haagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla ice cream. A pint for every 4 persons is about right. Keep it deep in your freezer so it’s as cold as can be.
- Bottle of Lindeman’s Kriek (kriek means cherry) beer preferred. Kasteel Rouge Cherry Ale or The Duchesse Cherry are also possible but the higher alcohol will melt your ice cream much faster. You only need about 3 ounces per person. These beers are available at Total Wine & More.
- Chocolate syrup. Hershey’s Simply 5 Chocolate syrup, or Ghirardelli Chocolate Sauce. The Ghirardelli needs to sit out for at least 20 minutes or it’s too thick to pour.
- Cookies – suggest chocolate-chocolate chip or a chocolate chip with big chocolate chips. Pepperidge Farms has many tasty options. One cookie per person. Or, a brownie could be awesome.
(6) Whipped cream (optional). We like Redi-Whip cause it’s easy.
Suggest you use large Belgian beer chalice-type glasses to serve in, unless you have good sized parfait glasses. Second choice is a pint glass, but you’ll need extra long spoons to reach the bottom. You could use a bowl, I guess, but then it’s a beer sundae, not a beer parfait. There are worse things that could happen! But not much can go wrong with this dessert cause it’s pretty much foolproof. You want a glass or bowl large enough to accommodate all the layers of deliciousness.
Here ya go:
— A scoop of ice cream into each glass or bowl.
— Add some cherries on top of the ice cream.
— Another scoop of ice cream.
— Coarsely crumble the cookie or brownie over the ice cream and add more cherries.
— A drizzle of the chocolate syrup over the whole shebang.
— If you opt for whipped cream, a dollop on top.
— Make sure you have spoons ready for your guests!
So simply assemble the above for all your guests and then, just prior to serving, pour a few ounces of the beer down the side of the glass or bowl. You don’t want to splash it on top, as the ice cream will melt too fast. Once the beer is poured, serve immediately!
Your creation is ready for your guests to indulge. Cue the happy grunts and moans.
Now that you have the basic recipe, your imagination and creativity can lead to variations. Here are examples. Just layer parfait-style and remember to pour the beer down the side of the glass or bowl, not on top of the ice cream.
Variation 1: Raspberries Got Rizz.
Substitute raspberries and sweet blackberries for the cherries, and use Lindeman’s Framboise (raspberry) ale. Add blueberries or ripe strawberries if you like. It’s berry good!
Variation 2: Spicy Time!
Ice cream: Vanilla or Rum Raisin Haagen-Dazs.
Fruit: Soak raisins in rum, or just use rum raisin ice cream. An apple cubed into small pieces, either raw or microwaved for 30 seconds with cinnamon and butter, is a nice addition.
Cake/cookie: a small slice of pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie, pecan pie. (Yes, you just put a slice of pie in the glass or bowl). Or, a molasses, gingerbread, or pumpkin spice cookie. Add some slightly crumbled candied pecans or pralines for extra deliciousness.
Beer: Alewerks Pumpkin Ale (regular, not imperial).
Syrup: Pumpkin spice syrup, maple syrup, cinnamon-honey, or skip the syrup if you prefer.
Variation 3: Chocolate or Coffee Achiever
Ice cream: Chocolate or coffee flavor Haagen-Dazs.
Fruit: none needed. Chocolate chips or chocolate shavings optional.
Cake/cookie: Pepperidge Farm Milano, chocolate cookie, brownie, or biscotti.
Beer: Maker’s Craft Brewery’s Sweet Stout, Sojourn Fermentory’s Modern Dark Lager, or St George’s English Porter are all good options. Any lower alcohol coffee beer would work.
Syrup: Chocolate syrup. You might be tempted to add a drizzle of a coffee liqueur like Kahlua. Go easy on the coffee liqueur as the higher alcohol content will make this slushy sooner. It’s still gonna be delicious.
So hopefully you are inspired to create one of these beer desserts. Beer has a range that extends from sweet to sour to bitter, herbal to smoky to roasted, lemony to chocolate. There is a beer for every dessert, and a dessert for every beer!
Beer desserts are a great way of exploring the range of flavor profiles that beer has and remember…beer, like dessert, should be FUN! Feel free to riff on these beer parfaits with your own combinations of beer, fruit, ice cream, cookie, and syrup. You really can’t go wrong!
