I posted this on another forum and it was soundly ignored. Still trying to gage if this is an idea worth running with. Im participating in an Autism benefit next month. I let my son, who is autistic, decide what dad should brew. He said a chocolate ice cream beer. I was planning to do a chocolate milk stout but had the idea to add ice cream cones to the mash. I know cereal, graham crackers, and pastries have all been used before. Anyone tried this or know someone who has? Just seems like a fun experiment.
Ice cream cones have limited flavorings. Only vanilla and a bit of sugar. I’d toss some in the mash, but also consider stepping a vanilla bean before packaging.
I don’t know, waffle and sugar cones have a definite flavor to them.
I think this is a really fun idea. I’d use enough cones for at least 30-40% of the total mash. You’d have to use that many to be able to taste them at all.
Sure, a bit from the cooking. But it’s basically thin vanilla cookie batter.
Maybe crush them up and toast them in the oven with some sugar in attempt to get some more goodness out of them?
Heck, even if you don’t get much flavor I like the concept of a waffle cone stout. It just sounds delicious. As long as you can say you put them in, and they don’t harm the flavor, I think it’s a brilliant idea.
1000% agree. Won’t hurt to try. Kids cereal has been used by plenty, this shouldn’t be too different.
I do wonder how the fat from the dairy and eggs will fare? Could it go rancid over long term aging?
I thought about using Corn Pops a couple weeks ago since the kids NEEDED to have them and then wouldn’t eat them. I chose to toss them out. Not sure what kind of preservatives are in those things, and I didn’t care enough to come up with a new recipe for them.
No actual ice cream going into said beer, so no worries about eggs and dairy. My salmonella porter already that market cornered.
The cones will have eggs and dairy in the ingredients. That means fats. I’m sure it will be fine, just curious as to what might happen.
If you put them in the mash, you’ll likely never be able to taste them. Maybe that’s OK and it’s enough just to know they’re in there. If you want to emulate the flavor add some vanilla post primary.
I used Capn Crunch once, many years ago. It made a bit of an oil slick on the top of the mash, but there were no other negative effects. There were no positive effects either, flavor or otherwise. It could be a fun experiment for the family, though.
I think I may skip the mash and add them to the boil and then “dry cone” the secondary.
I think I would toast some and add in the fermenter. I would also try to coax some cracker/graham flavor out of the grain bill. You could even find a way to garnish the pint of stout with the cone, either a big piece or crumbled.
I would not advise that. Starch city.
You won’t get much out of them in the boil, either.
For best ice cream cone flavor and aroma, consider steeping the cones for 40 minutes after knockout and after cooling the wort to 160°F. Be sure to use at least 4 times the amount of ice cream cones that you had planned to use for the 60 minute addition. Never use a copper chiller when brewing with ice cream cones, as that may lead to a stale, oxidized ice cream clone flavor.
Make sure it’s at least 10 minutes after your PVPP/Whirlfloc addition and 10 minutes before your gallotannins 
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