Watermelon & Beer Sorbet

This is what summer tastes like! Sweet watermelon married with ice cold beer and spun into a beautifully smooth, bright pink sorbet. Yeah man.

Watermelon & Beer Sorbet

Yield: 5 cups

Time: 10 minutes prep + 30 minutes to spin in ice cream machine

Cost: <$10

Hardware:

- a large knife

- bowl

- measuring cup

- cutting board

- blender or food processor

- strainer

- ice cream machine (optional)

Software:

- 8 cups watermelon, cubed

- 1 cup good quality beer

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

Instructions:

Chill bowl for ice cream maker in the freezer at least 8 hours prior to making this sorbet.

Cut away rind from watermelon. Cube about 8 cups of watermelon and place in large bowl. Add sugar and beer, toss to coat.

Puree until smooth in blender. Pour juice through a fine mesh strainer. Taste, add more beer or sugar if necessary.

Spin in ice cream maker about 30 minutes. Alternatively you can pour the sorbet mix into a shallow pan and freeze it overnight. The alcohol in the recipe helps the sorbet to stay slightly soft in the freezer.

Take your watermelon and while holding it firmly on it's side, remove the top and bottom. This will help stabilize the melon while you hack away at it without remorse.

Upright it onto it's flat bottom. Cut away the rind by gently following the curvature of the melon from top to bottom, trying to take as much white rind off as possibly while leaving as much pink as possible.

Save your rind! This will come in handy later... for WATERMELON RIND PICKLES!

Halve your skinless watermelon. Chop into rough cubes. Place about 8 cups into in a large bowl. Eat all the rest until it feels like maybe you might be somehow drowning... or ya know, share..

C'mon baby..

C'mon and stir it up..

Into the bowl of pretty pink watermelon goodness add your 1 1/2 cups of sugar.

Pour your beer all over it!

I prefer a lighter beer for this, something with a clean taste, but that is just my preference. I have used Iceberg beer for this because I'm in Newfoundland and I've been meaning to try this regional treasure for a long time. Its fantastic! Use this as an excuse to pick up a bottle of the local stuff someone has made with love, or some of that exotic foreign ale in the tall can calling to you in Ye Olde Liquor Shoppe. I think something like Guiness might be a bit much though.. give it a try and let me know how it goes! You and your watermelon deserve it.

Mix it all together.

Maybe listen to a little of this.

Dump everything into your blender or food processor. If you're not so lucky and your blender doesn't fit 9 cups of liquid, you might have to do this next bit in two parts.

Hit puree and watch the watermelon turn into a nice, smooth, light pink juice.

Lay a fine mesh strainer over your large bowl and pour the sorbet mix through.

Press until only a small amount of pulp (and seeds, if you gottem!) is left. That way you know you have all the good stuff.

Tada! Watermelon and beer sorbet. Try not to drink all of it on the way to your ice cream maker.

Pour the mix into your super frosty ice cream maker bowl and let it spin for about 30 minutes, until it looks all.. done. Like that, picture up there, ya see?

Or, you could pour it into a shallow pan and put it in your freezer overnight. The alcohol in the mix will keep it soft and scoopable and it will be nice too, don't worry.

Wait until it stops raining and the sun is out and it's so hot you can barely stand it, and then eat a big bowl. That's refreshment right there.

Warning: weeping with happiness may occur.