For the past few years Melbourne gelato giant Messina has dominated Australia’s dessert industry. At the same time, Australian Brewery have been winning award after award for their top-notch bevs. It’s should be no surprise then, that the two would create something iconic when they got together. The idea for Gelato Ale started with one of Messina’s most popular flavours – dulce de leche. The Latin American confection has a similar taste to caramel and works wildly well as a gelato. Messina was thrown a curve ball in 2017 when imports of dulce de leche from Argentina were banned by the Australian government – with its main supply now unavailable, they needed to learn how to make the sweet from scratch. After much trial and error (and many trips to Argentina), the team at Messina perfected their recipe. An unexpected benefit of this in-house dulce de leche was all of the new possibilities it held, like the potential to flavour a beer.

In collaboration with Messina, Australian Brewery crafted Gelato Ale on-site at their brewery in Rouse Hill, New South Wales. A special batch of in-house dulce de leche was used to produce the limited edition drink and after a bit of trial and error, and a few iterations of the recipe, the flavour profile was perfected. Despite the contrasting flavours and textures of dulce de leche and beer, what resulted was a harmonious brew with fruity notes mixed with the sweetness of the caramel. Each sip of this cold one pushes the limits of what a beer can taste like – its complex malt character and smooth, creamy texture is sure to be a crowd pleaser.