A new dessert trend is brewing

Kiss My Bundt Bakery owner Chrysta Wilson always stocks her fridge with Tecate. Not because she craves the light Mexican beer but because she bakes with it. Her Tecate cake is moist, light and crumbly. It's the carbonation, she says.

Now that beer culture is exploding in popularity in Southern California, beer is even finding its way into desserts, as pastry chefs use it to make dishes that are not only sweet but also have layered textures and flavors that wouldn't be possible otherwise. What started with quirky beer and ice cream floats has now spread to shakes, cakes, gelato, fritters and even candy.

Jason Bernstein started making beer and ice cream floats more than a decade ago, just for fun, while he was in college. Now, at the Golden State, the beer-forward Fairfax Avenue cafe that Bernstein co-owns with James Starr, he's forged a symbiotic relationship with Scoops gelato mad scientist Tai Kim. Their signature collaboration is a float that pairs North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout and "brown bread ice cream" — vanilla ice cream streaked with caramel and loaded with caramelized Grape-Nuts.

"Grape-Nuts are like a wheat berry," says Bernstein. "It was bringing out very grainy qualities that were present but latent in the Rasputin."

Wine has long been part of European cooking traditions. Now, local pastry chefs are discovering beer's even more diverse flavor spectrum, which includes citrusy wheat beers, tangy sours and bitter India Pale Ales, plus stouts and porters with chocolate and coffee notes. Beer is frequently used in batters for savory fried foods, and it can help to lighten cakes as well. Floats, shakes and popsicles are also benefiting from beer's contrasting flavors.

Initially, the Golden Staters focused on earthy flavors, such as chocolate and coffee, but recently started pairing sour beers with tangy, fruit-forward gelatos, matching New Belgium Brewing Co.'s Fall Wild Ale with black currant-mango. "In some ways it works better," says Bernstein. "With sour beers, you can play into more fruit-based aromatics."

The Golden State was just the start of the L.A. beer float revolution.

BottleRock-Downtown LA currently scoops vanilla ice cream into Allagash Curieux, a Belgian-style tripel aged in bourbon barrels, which imparts added vanilla flavor.

In Hollywood, Essex Public House co-owner Greg Link has developed two beer floats: the Espresso Biru with Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout, vanilla ice cream and crumbled Oreos, and the Blueberry Bomber with chocolate ice cream and Sea Dog Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale, which Link insists "tastes like a blueberry pancake." Essex serves each float with the bottle, so diners can customize the richness.

Other restaurants offer beer shakes, in which beer and ice cream are blended. For example, Simmzy's gastropub in Manhattan Beach blends vanilla ice cream with Port Brewing's Old Viscosity, a dark chocolatey ale.
By Joshua Lurie, Special to the Los Angeles Times