Montana is Big Sky and Beer Ice Cream Country

Every night at my house after dinner I have this dilemma. Should I have a beer or a bowl of ice cream? For some reason I can never have both before bed. If I do I have trouble sleeping I think it has something to do with mixing uppers (sugar) and downers (beer). Well, I think this is all going to change soon.

Charlie Beaton, owner of Big Dipper Ice Cream in Missoula Montana, has created Cold Smoke Beer Ice Cream. That’s right its ice cream made from beer! This is not the first time Charlie has created a great ice cream flavor, he is also known for making Maple Bacon, Chipotle Chocolate and Peanut Curry ice cream.

Charlie shares his reasoning behind the ice cream.”Beer is made with malt” – as are malted milk shakes, of course – “so it was just natural to try that, and it turned out pretty good.”

The ice cream is made just like any other ice cream but with a few key ingredients added. The secret behind the ice cream is a concentrate of unfermented “wort”, the extract from barley and hops. They use the same basis that the Kettlehouse, a local micro brew, uses for their Cold Smoke Ale (a Scotch-style Ale).

Sadly, since they use per- fermented wort this will not get you drunk.

If you want to know more about Charlie, Kettlehouse, and the ice cream, be sure to read this article by Joe Nickell of the Missoulian.

Now that we know Charlie can make Maple Bacon and Beer ice cream. I hope his next step is to combine them. I would like to see a Maple Bacon Stout Ice Cream. Not sure if a stout would be the right style of beer for the job, but it rolls off the tongue well.

If you had beer or bacon beer ice cream, I would love to hear how it tastes.