Smitten Launches Beer Ice Cream That Gets You Drunk

Beer ice cream is nothing new: Humphry Slocombe has made it for Beer Week for years, and savvy dessert-mongers across the country, from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream to Salt & Straw, have also been incorporating craft brews into their creations. But most beer ice creams require parlors to reduce and heat the beer to create the base, meaning that the finished product retains the brew's flavor, but not its alcohol content.

That left a big opening for Smitten Ice Cream, the SF purveyor of ice cream that's flash-frozen with liquid nitrogen. Because of its unusual freezing process, the shop, which has four locations around the Bay Area and is planning a fifth in Pacific Heights, is able to freeze up ice creams that will get you drunk. And they're planning to do just that for SF Beer Week, teaming up with Marin Brewing for a quartet of beer ice creams that include chocolate-imperial porter and salted-caramel stout.

For these special concoctions, Smitten is hosting two 21-and-up ice cream socials during Beer Week: one at their newer Rockridge location on February 10, and one at their original Hayes Valley outpost on February 12. At each event, $25 buys a scoop of all four beer ice creams, and for $33, you can throw in a pour of Marin beer to make one of them into a float, as well as a custom pint glass.