Root beer may be traditional, but a float made with actual beer? Now that's a treat! Beers like chocolate stouts and fruity lambics are halfway to being desserts already. By adding a scoop of ice cream, we're just helping things along.
As the weather starts to warm and head towards summer, these beer and ice cream combos are sounding particularly appealing:
• Chocolate Stout with Chocolate Ice Cream - Double chocolate! • Witbier with Raspberry Sorbet - A lighter float to end a meal. • Mocha Stout with Coffee Ice Cream - Post-dinner pick me up. • Hefeweizen with Vanilla Ice Cream - Think creamsicle. • Fruit Lambic with Vanilla Ice Cream - Peach or cherry lambic are my favorites for this.
More fun with beer floats!
• Beer Float with Hoppin' Frog Imperial Oatmeal Stout • Cherry Lambic Ice Cream Float • Cool Treats: Beer and Ice Cream Floats
Do you have a favorite beer and ice cream pairing?
Related: Old Fashioned Floats: Brown Cows to Boston Coolers
(Image: Faith Durand)
Bacsac Bacsquare 04...

I love the beer and ice cream combo and I don't really even like beer.
Guinness and homemade vanilla is the best.
I don't like beer either, except once while i was in Asheville North Carolina for work, my co worker and i were sent off for a week of training to Asheville, well anyway, she ordered an orange beer with a fresh orange in it, so good, i ordered one too. Could not imagine ice cream and beer, but i will try anything once. Still love rootbeer or pepsi, diet of course, with vanilla ice cream.
I love beer, and I love beer floats. A year or so ago I had a dark beer that was completely undrinkable; add a scoop of ice cream and it became one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. (Sadly, I can't remember what the beer was.)
I need to try this with the only beer I'll drink a full bottle of, Java Porter.
Why would ANYONE do that to a perfectly good beer?
Floats aren't usually my thing, but I've had some tasty beer floats before! One time I made a float with chocolate ice cream and some Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout (I highly recommend Duck-Rabbit beers to anyone living in North Carolina), and a bar around the corner from me in San Francisco had an event last year where they paired Young's Double Chocolate Stout with Humphry Slocombe vanilla ice cream and home-brandied cherries. Delicious!
Yum. Sounds awesome! Thanks for all of the ideas.
Yes! Hoppin Frog! Such a fantastic brewery, and I can only imagine the BORIS The Crusher would make a fantastic float.
Beer for dessert is such an excellent idea. One of my favorite floats is St. Bernardus Wit with grapefruit sorbet.
Natural Light and Blue Bunny "Bunny Tracks" Good Ole South Alabama Beer Float.