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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?

13 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Real beer? by slyrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Real beer? by hal2814 · · Score: 4, Funny

      First they came for the American lager
      And I didn't speak out because I don't like Bud Light
      Then they came for the mass-produced European lagers
      And I didn't speak out because I don't have the money to blow on fancy schmancy imports.
      Then they came for the stouts.
      And I didn't speak up. Do I look Irish to you?
      Then they came for the IPA's.
      And it was about damn time. I like hops but I don't like to rub them in my eyeballs while I'm drinking beer.
      But then they came for the Kolsch.
      And there was no one left to speak out for me.

  2. Most beer is too cold already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The only beer that merits consumption at anything close to "cold" are the thin, watery excuses produced by the Big 3 breweries in the USA (Larry, Moe and Curly, AKA Miller, Bud and Coors) Real beer needs to be chilled nicely but served in the 45-55 degree range for the flavors to be enjoyed.

    1. Re:Most beer is too cold already by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    2. Re:Most beer is too cold already by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  3. Re:Ice anyone? by CoderExpert · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. Flavorless rice lagers by XiaoMing · · Score: 5, Informative

    Might make flavorless rice lagers easier to go down, but what about real beer?

    Considering how this is a pretty neat idea that is not only a pretty big step beyond just ice-cubes made of beer both texturally (frozen foam), and thermodynamically, I'm not sure why the author felt it would be necessary to even remotely knock it in such a retarded manner when...

    Let's take a look at America's top 5 domestics shall we:
    1. Bud light
    2. Budweiser
    3. Miller Light
    4. Coors Light
    5. Corona Extra
    http://www.fiveoclockdallas.com/five-most-popular-beers-us

    I'm not sure if OP has ever tried such a beer, but it's pretty flavorful compared to the 5 variants of piss I just listed. And considering how well the Japanese rice beers actually pair with sushi (which is probably where 99% of that exposure will occur in the states), I'd say it's pretty well suited to its purpose.

    Then again, it's also fair to say that the domestic Top5 is pretty well suited to their purpose, given that they all pair pretty well with ping-pong balls.

  5. Re:Ice anyone? by osu-neko · · Score: 5, Funny

    Assuming it's American commercial beer, the additional water content from melting ice is statistically insignificant.

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  6. Despite Coors' Best Efforts... by nrozema · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... "cold" is not a flavor.

  7. Re:Ice anyone? by Algae_94 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:Ice anyone? by Quirkz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:Ice anyone? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Indeed, the keeping chickens is on the rise here in the U.S., and any woman who wishes to breed chickens for food would need to have at least one cock.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  10. Shades of a failed experiment by shogarth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This reminds me of a time we were in the field and our beer got unappetizingly warm. Due to the kind of work we were doing, we had plenty of liquid nitrogen but insufficient refrigerator space for our liquid refreshments. One evening a member of the team decided he wanted a very cold Guinness and so poured about 250 ml of liquid nitrogen into his glass of beer.

    Of course the nitrogen changed state but the surprise (to us anyway) was that the gas caused the beer to freeze sightly slower that it foamed. Within a few seconds, there was a meter or so of frozen beer foam standing up out of the glass. It was completely undrinkable (being in solid form), but wasn't bad if eaten with a spoon; which had to happen quickly as it started to melt immediately.

    Moral: Don't send a bunch of twenty-something researchers into the desert for weeks on end without proper cooling equipment.