Beer Pops FAIL

Is it odd that every time I try making something new and completely fail, my website hits spike?

Well, if the level of my failure is at all linked to the increasing hits, this one should be a whopper! I found a Mexican restaurant out in New York that has been making “beer pops” and put up a post about it. The reviews of them were pretty good. People seemed to like them quite a bit. The problem is that I didn’t have a recipe to work from to try recreating them. All I had to work off of was the fact that it only included a can of Tecate, lime juice, and simple syrup.

I set myself to work putting together a little experiment. After a little bit of research I found a few other recipes for “beer pops” on the web with varying amounts of simple syrup (1:1 ratio of sugar to water) and lime juice. The one constant was that pretty much all of them utilized a can of Tecate.

In the name of science I swallowed my pride and bought a six-pack of Tecate to try making my first batch of beer pops. I only say that I swallowed my pride because I have a personal policy to try to avoid any beer made in a country where I can’t safely drink the water. I set up six cans, drank a little from each, and added different ratios of simple syrup and lime juice to each based on the different recipes I found on the web. Once they were nice and mixed I put a stick in each to give it the genuine popsicle effect.

That was mistake number one. Have you ever put a piece of wood into beer? It foams uncontrollably. I had Tecate all over the counters, cabinets, and floor. After some cleaning I tossed them into the freezer to chill.

Day 2 – The Tasting

I was joined by my friend Ken and my mom to try out my creations. After cutting the bottoms off the cans I ran a little warm water on the sides to help them slide out. I wanted to start out by trying the one closest to the recommended recipe I found. A Tecate with two teaspoons of lime juice and two tablespoons of simple syrup. It was bitter, there was too much lime, and not enough syrup.

I shouldn’t have expected much when I started with a sub-par beer, but I made it worse. In fact, every single one of my six trials was bad. The lime and syrup had sunk to the bottom. Then the top tasted like malty, somehow spoiled beer.

DO NOT TRY THIS. I see no possible way that it could have worked out well. Seriously, don’t even consider it.

I’m trying a variation on it and have 12 test subjects in the freezer right now. I’ll put up a post in the next day or two letting you know how it worked out. Unless I get some pretty promising results I’m going to give up on the idea of beer popsicles.