Pale lager beer sorbet

Hop bitterness, lemon and no dairy at all. A grown-up sorbet that keeps the foamy aroma of beer.

Beer is technically the hardest recipe in this whole set, and not because of the flavour. In the composition model alcohol has more than seven times the anti-freezing power of sugar (a coefficient of 740 against 100): two per cent alcohol in the mix does the work of fifteen grams of sugar per hundred. That is why there is only 480 g of beer per kilogram, and why it must never be boiled — boil the beer and the alcohol goes, the PAC collapses and the sorbet freezes into a solid block. Pour in more beer, or reach for a strong lager or an IPA, and you get a slush that never sets at all.

Type: Sorbet · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 480 g pale lager (beer ~4.5 % ABV) (pale lager around 4.5 % ABV, left to go flat)
  • 180 g water
  • 185 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 55 g glucose syrup (DE 40, 80 % solids)
  • 30 g lemon juice (fresh)
  • 4 g grated lemon zest (from one unwaxed lemon)

Making the mix

  1. Open the beer at least an hour ahead, pour it into a bowl and let it go flat. The carbon dioxide has to escape — bubbles would make the mix foam in the machine and it would never build texture.
  2. Heat the water, granulated sugar and glucose syrup to 80 °C, stirring until the syrup is clear. Drop in the lemon zest, take the pan off the heat and infuse for 10 minutes.
  3. Strain the syrup and chill it below 5 °C in a bowl of iced water. It must be properly cold, or the beer will lose its aroma.
  4. Stir the flat beer and the lemon juice into the cold syrup. Do not blend or whisk — a gentle stir is enough.
  5. Cover and rest in the fridge for 2–3 hours.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch the ice cream maker on 5–10 minutes in advance so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Give the aged mix a quick blitz with a stick blender and pour it into the bowl, no higher than the fill line. Churn for 35–45 minutes, until it thickens and clings to the paddle.
  3. Transfer to a chilled tub, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 4 hours.

Alcohol slows both churning and hardening. Expect the sorbet to leave the machine looser than a fruit one and to reach full consistency only after four hours in the freezer.

Total time: 8 h 13 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the bowl, frozen for at least 24 hours, out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the well-chilled, freshly blended mix — filling the bowl no more than two-thirds.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes, until the mix thickens to a soft cream. There is no point going longer — by then the bowl has warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled tub, cover with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for 5 hours.

A freezer bowl is borderline for an alcoholic sorbet — it simply does not have the cold to set a mix containing two per cent alcohol. Freeze the bowl for 48 hours, have the mix ice cold, and expect it to leave the machine merely thickened and to finish setting in the freezer.

Total time: 8 h 58 min

Stages

Preparation
15 min
Cooking
8 min
Cooling
40 min
Ageing in the fridge
2 h 30 min
Churning
40 min
Hardening in the freezer
4 h
Total time
8 h 13 min

Plan: what to do and when

The whole recipe takes 8 h 13 min, of which 23 min is hands-on — the rest is waiting you can spend elsewhere.

The making itself fits into a single day — start at least 8 h 13 min before serving.

  • Prepare the mix (weigh and stir the ingredients) — 15 min
  • Cook the mix — 8 min
  • Cool the mix down — 40 min
  • Let the mix age in the fridge — 2 h 30 min
  • Churn in the machine — 40 min
  • Let it harden in the freezer — 4 h

Serving and storage

Serve it in a chilled glass between courses or instead of dessert, or as a float — pour cold lager over a scoop. It contains alcohol: not for children, pregnant women or anyone driving. Let it stand for 5–10 minutes and run a spoon across the surface before scooping — sorbets harden faster than dairy ice creams.

It keeps a month in the freezer, but the beer aroma fades within days — it is best straight away. The alcohol keeps it soft, so close the tub well or it will pick up other smells.

Tips

  • Do not use beer above 5 % ABV. A stronger lager, an IPA or a 6 % beer pushes the PAC past the sorbet ceiling and the mix will never set.
  • Cold sharpens bitterness. Use a heavily hopped beer only if you enjoy bitter ice cream — otherwise stick to a plain pale lager.
  • Alcohol-free beer does not work as a straight swap: without the alcohol the PAC drops by about 14 points. Add 50 g of dextrose and take out 40 g of granulated sugar.

Why it works

The mix contains 2 % alcohol, and that alone supplies about 15 of the 39 PAC points (the sorbet range is 26–42). The rest comes from 185 g of granulated sugar and the glucose syrup. The syrup is used instead of dextrose on purpose: its dextrins have a low anti-freezing coefficient (35 against 190 for dextrose), so they raise the solids and the Brix without lifting the PAC — exactly what a recipe this close to the ceiling needs. Beer itself is 92 % water and its residual extract is largely unfermentable dextrin, so it contributes little to the solids; total solids therefore land at 27 %, just above the sorbet floor.

Related recipes

How we calculate the composition · What PAC and POD mean · Balance this mix in the calculator

Sources