The Japanese beer brand Kirin Ichiban uses a special dispenser which adds a whipped top frozen at minus five degrees to a standard pint, keeping it extra cold for around 30 minutes longer than usual.
The beer, which was originally launched last year, is now in two pubs and eight other outlets and will continue to be rolled out across other appropriate sites in the future.
Wells and Young’s brand manager Sarah Mahoney said: “Kirin Frozen has been incredibly popular and people love the fun and theatre of the serve.”
Along with the dispenser that sits on the bar, pubs also receive Kirin Frozen glasses to compliment the beer.
Customer satisfaction
The Prince Albert in Camden, north London, is one of the pubs serving Kirin Frozen and group manager Gareth Leakey says it has been a talking point.
He said: “Customer reaction has been great and sales have doubled. We started serving the frozen Kirin about eight weeks ago and we’ve gone from selling two barrels a week to five. Every week we seem to be upping our stock levels.”
Priced at £4.40 a pint, Leakey feels the market has the scope to extend beyond the summer months.
He added: “It’s not like we are asking customers to have an ice cream or have jacked up the price. The beer is just kept colder but the taste is slightly different which customers enjoy. I’d say around 98% of customers who try it love it,”
Acquired taste
Kirin is not the only ultra- cool beer around. Fuller’s pub the Boater in Bath serves a Meantime Raspberry Grand Cru which comes poured over ice from the bottle.
“It’s an acquired taste and comes served in a glass over ice, almost like a cider,” said assistant manager Rachel Mannion.
Meanwhile, Cheers Café Bar and Tavern in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, is offering up alcoholic ice cream.
Customers can order a cone of alcoholic whipped cream for £1.50 or a waffle cone for £2 and flavours include chocolate, vanilla, orange and pineapple.
The bar has been advertising the alcoholic whipped cream via social media and has seen a keen amount of interest amongst users on Twitter and Facebook.
Licensee Denis Forsyth said: “Our most popular flavours are chocolate and caramel but we serve around nine or ten flavours. Sales are ticking over nicely and I hope it continues.”
Ale House Rock
The Columbo Group site the Blues Kitchen in Camden, north London has experimented with a number of different frozen creations – in particular the Ale House Rock.
The Ale House Rock combines 2/3 of a pint of Camden Pale Ale topped up with a frozen head of the same beer and a neutral base syrup and is priced at £5.
Lydia Whyte, General manager and mixologist at the Blues Kitchen said: “The Ale House Rock was a particular success on our social media, with lots of people coming in and asking for it off the back of our instagram post.”
Alcoholic sorbets
Scottish craft beer brand BrewDog has teamed up with ice cream shop Gelupo in central London to create a range of alcoholic sorbets.
The sorbets feature BrewDog beers Punk IPA, 5AM Saint, Cocoa Psycho and Clown King and are available at the Camden, Edinburgh and Aberdeen sites.
Depending on feedback, the sorbets will be rolled out at BrewDog sites across the UK.