How to Make Beer Slushies at Home

Slushies have come a long way from those psychedelic-colored mounds of ice heaped into paper cups you used to love as a kid. Today, slushies are being concocted with alcohol, beer included, and if you’ve never tasted a beer slushy, use this as your motivation to do it. It’s a newish spin on beer that makes sipping even more fun.  

How Beer Slushies Came To Be

Credit goes to the Japanese for introducing the world to beer slushies. In 2010, Asahi, a famous Japanese brewery, introduced its ice-cold beer slushy. The Super Dry beer got poured from the tap at 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and the beer slushy boom was on. “Just two years later, frozen beer was booming in Japan, and it soon came to other countries,” says Timo Torner, founder of Cocktail Society, one of the world’s largest online cocktail communities.

One country that quickly embraced the beer slushy was Thailand. In fact, the Thai created their own word for their rendition of a beer slushy, namely a “bia wun” or jelly beer, Torner says. Using metal barrels initially intended for cooling non-alcoholic drinks, they used ice pops to chill the beer before filling the barrels with ice, salt, and water. Those barrels were kept moving constantly to lower the temperature down to 26 degrees Fahrenheit at times. The pressure inside the glass bottles prevented the beer from freezing, and once the bottles were removed from the barrel, a quick shake helped crystallize the beer inside. 

Ready for a fun fact to impress your beer-loving friends? “Thai restaurants in the United States brought beer slushies into this country,” Torner says. Since then, numerous breweries in the United States, from 450 North Brewing Company in Columbus, IN, to Wiley Roots Brewing Company in Greeley, CO, have been experimenting – and finding success – with them. 

For instance, Wiley Roots had five slushies on its menu, although it can have as many as eight at a time. The brewery debuted its first slush offerings in 2016 and now features one or two new slush options weekly from April through September, each one having fresh fruit puree added to the slush base in their frozen machines to make the experience more unique.  

What’s driving customers to its Slush offerings? “It’s an approachable fruited sour offering,” says Miranda Carbaugh, Chief Operations Officer and Director of Sales for Wiley Roots. “Customers also enjoy beer that’s meant to be fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously.”  

How to make it:

• Place one can in the freezer so that you have a reference to determine the ideal moment to remove the other cans. 
• Ten or 15 minutes later, place the rest of the cans in the freezer. Want to chill your glass? Put it in now, too. 
• If your beer was fridged before the above step, it will need 35 to 40 minutes to turn into jelly beer. Room-temperature beer will take 25 to 30 minutes longer.
• After 35 minutes (65 minutes if it started at room temperature), remove your reference can. If it’s still fluid, wait 15 more minutes before taking out the other cans. If it’s already turning into a jelly-like slush, wait 10 more minutes before taking out the other cans.