A restaurant and creamery in Massachusetts have teamed up to create new desserts just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

The Cape Cod Times reports that Seana Gaherin, the owner of Dunn-Gaherin’s pub in Newton, MA, has been using Guinness as part of her desserts on the menu for years now.

“There's an old saying in Ireland that 'the Guinness is good for eating and drinking,’” said Gaherin, “which inspired me about 10 years ago to introduce a dessert to our menu at Dunn-Gaherin's called the 'Guinness Float,' which consisted of ice cream floating in Guinness with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. I always thought the only thing that could make it better would be if there were a Guinness-flavored ice cream that we could use in the float or serve alone."

This year, Gaherin’s dream has come true with the help of a local ice cream company called Cape Cod Creamery. Alan Davis, the company’s owner, concocted 12 gallons of Guinness-flavored ice cream.

"I've been serving it for the past few weeks and people love it," said Gaherin of the original Guinness ice cream. "We use it in the float, but we also made a whoopie pie with chocolate cookies, warm caramel sauce, whipped cream, and honey-coated pecans, and we give customers the option of having it instead of vanilla in our chocolate decadence, which is a flourless chocolate cake served warm."

Creating ice cream from beer is no easy feat though. Alan Davis had turned to Cape Cod Beer co-owner and brewmaster Todd Marcus for guidance.

Marcus explained that the water in the beer forms ice crystals that detract from the creamy dessert. A way around that, he says, might be to flavor with wort (a concentrated sugar extract) before adding bitter hops or water.

While it took two weeks of playing around with, they finally landed on a suitable final product, one that has the customers of Dunn-Gaherin’s quite pleased.

Although Davis is not planning to have Guinness on the Cape Cod Creamery menu, he says he will make it, at $39 for three gallons, if people email requests to [email protected].