Coming to an Ice Cream Shop Near You: Soft Serve Beer

Cazekiel writes "Sticking a mug in your freezer to ensure a cold beer may be made obsolete, if the Japanese brewing giant Kirin has anything to do about it. How? Kirin came up with a way to create frozen beer foam, dispensed the way you would a soft-serve ice cream cone. Gizmag gives us the details: 'To make the topping, regular Ichiban beer is frozen to -5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) while air is continuously blown into it. It's kind of like when a child makes bubbles in their drink, except inside a blast freezer. Once the topping is placed onto regular, unfrozen beer though, it acts as an insulating lid and keeps the drink cold for 30 minutes.'" Might make flavorless rice lagers easier to go down, but what about real beer? A hefeweizen under an ice cap on a warm summer afternoon? How about an entire glass full of frozen chocolate stout?

Comments

Ice anyone?

[CoderExpert]

Why they don't just put ice on the beer like every normal person in Thailand does?

Re:Ice anyone?

[CoderExpert]

Because it keeps it nicely cold. The beers are stronger (6.7%) to begin with. With temperature of 30-40 celsius beer gets warm really quickly. Ice helps with that, and it doesn't really ruin it.

Re:Ice anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't the whole point that the ice is made of beer, so it doesn't water it down? The problem I see is having to buy the same type of beer ice as the beer you.

Why not just use those rock cubes that you can get for whisky that you stick in the freezer? You might need a bigger glass so that you don't displace the beer. And they'd need to be smooth enough that ey don't flatten the beer by nucleating too many bubbles too quickly.

Re:Ice anyone?

[Algae_94]

Why is there this dick waving contest to make ever stronger beers? If you really need to get your drink on, have another beer, have some wine, or liquor. There's nothing wrong with a beer just because there's a different one with a higher alcohol content.

Re:Ice anyone?

[Hatta]

Good beer should taste good at room temperature. And watering down beer definitely ruins it.

Re:Ice anyone?

[Quirkz]

I personally prefer never to have an experience that might be confused with biting into a grapefruit rind, but I will firmly uphold your right to do so if you wish.

Real beer?

[slyrat]

I would consider Kirin to be real beer. They do also make a Happoshu but the actual beer they make isn't bad. Beer is a very diverse drink and there are many kinds and types. I wouldn't ever consider one type to be more 'real' than others. Regardless it would still be interesting to try this technique for frozen beer foam on all of the different types of beers.

Re:Most beer is too cold already

[dkleinsc]

I'm confused: When did Miller, Bud and Coors start selling beer? I thought their product was slightly alcoholic water.

Re:Most beer is too cold already

[geekoid]

"I thought their product was slightly alcoholic water."
As a Whiskey drinker, that's what I think of all beers.