Carvel's Cookie Puss Is Now Available in Beer Form. Here's How It Tastes.

cookie puss song
Courtesy of Carvel
Courtesy of Carvel

In order to stand out in the crowded craft beer game, breweries often produce beer with ingredients you know and love, like Lucky Charms, Oreo, and dragon blood from Game of Thrones’ Rhaegal. That last one isn’t real, but there are GoT beers, so it’s not far off. Those breweries get a ton of buzz from social media and sites like this one, and they usually sell briskly. Mostly the breweries do it without the expressed, written consent of the brand featured in the beer -- they’re simply inspired by how the flavor shines in the booze.

Sometimes, however, a brewery will work in tandem a brand to create new and exciting beers, and often the results can be extremely fun for the drinking public. When we heard that Elmsford, New York’s Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. teamed up with ice cream brand Carvel for a pair of beers celebrating the classic Cookie Puss ice cream cake's 85th birthday --  Cookie Puss Birthday Beer and Cookie O’Puss -- we had to try them.

Cookie O'Puss
Carvel

Wait, what’s a Cookie Puss again?

It’s a cake practically invented for birthday parties! And this might sound a touch horrifying, but it’s definitely in the shape of a clown’s face, though Carvel says it’s a “space alien.” The ice cream company also says the cake “travelled all the way from planet birthday just to celebrate with you.” Don’t worry: none of these cakes are undercover killer clowns from outer space. Carvel -- also the purveyors of the iconic Fudgie the Whale -- shipped me one of these bad boys, and I can say with absolute certainty that 0% of the cake was a murderous alien sent to Earth to destroy humanity. In fact, it’s one of the best-tasting birthday cakes on the market, with layers of chocolate + vanilla ice cream and fantastically crunchy chocolate nuggets.

I hadn’t had a slice of the cake in forever, so I cut out that poor clown’s eye and dug in. One bite and I was in middle school again at my friend’s birthday party, probably upset that everyone else was better at roller skating than me. And yeah, it’s also the name of the Beastie Boys’ debut single. Much of the track’s content didn’t age well, though “I wanna speak to Cookypuss, man!” remains a funny sentence.

Cookie O'Puss
Carvel

Let’s pair Cookie O’Puss beer with Cookie Puss cake

First off, this beer can art is killer. Not killer as in “killer clown,” I just mean it’s well-designed -- it’s detailed with tiny shamrocks, and look at how psyched that Cookie Puss is for St. Patrick’s Day! After all, this is a St. Paddy’s Day-themed brew, so the cake’s face is decked out like a leprechaun. Captain Lawrence says this stout was brewed with the cake’s chocolate crunchies, fudge, ice cream, and milk sugar.

I take a whiff of the beer and my olfactory senses are overloaded with fudge notes, which isn’t a bad thing; this cake can be super chocolatey depending on what part you’re eating. I made sure to take a bite of the chocolate crunchie layer, and it is completely addictive. If they made a cake entirely of chocolate crunchies, I’d be first in line. I’ll admit I’m a little mad I have to put the cake down and try the beer.

My first sip is fantastic, with wave after wave of fudge and cacao. Make no mistake about it, this is a chocolate bomb of a beer. Which is fine by me: Great Divide’s Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti is one of my favorites of all time. You can tell Captain Lawrence brewed it with those chocolate crunchies, because this essentially tastes like a liquified version. At 8% ABV, you’re best off pacing yourself and sipping this sucker. And maybe don’t pair it with the cake like I did. It’s almost too much of a good thing. Almost.

Cookie Puss Birthday Beer
Carvel

Cookie Puss Birthday Beer + Cookie Puss cake = true happiness

Captain Lawrence is no stranger to brewing milkshake IPAs, having recently released Soft Swerve with pineapple, coconut, vanilla, and milk sugar. Some beer lovers aren’t fans of milkshake IPAs, like these dumb dumbs from, uh... Thrillist? They make the case that beer shouldn’t taste like “a vanilla sundae with sprinkles on top.” But you know when a beer should taste like a vanilla sundae? When it’s beer inspired by an ice cream cake.

I took a spoonful of the Cookie Puss’ vanilla ice cream to get a feel for what the beer should taste like, since it was brewed with Carvel vanilla and milk sugar. Carvel’s vanilla ice cream is impeccably smooth, which sets the bar pretty high for this brew. But it says something that after I eat a slice of cake and take a sip of the beer, I'm unable to tell where the vanilla from the ice cream ends and the beer begins. The beer smells delicious, and delivers all those promised vanilla notes in every sip. Though it’s tempting to drink this one quickly, be careful, as the booze inside this 7.5% ABV confection is hidden quite well and could actually lead to you talking to Cookie Puss, so maybe that Beastie Boys song aged better than I thought.

While pairing the Cookie O’Puss beer with the cake was a chocolate overload even for a chocolate fiend like myself, the Cookie Puss Birthday Beer is a fine companion for a slice of Cookie Puss. The cake offers plenty of chocolate notes that complement the vanilla-heavy flavor profile of the beer, making for an excellent dessert option whether it’s your birthday or not.

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Lee Breslouer writes about food and drink from Colorado, takes pretty pictures of snacks @LeeBreslouer, and hopes that those alien clowns never come down from Planet Birthday to destroy us all.