This past week's cover story was the cocktail issue, or L.A.'s Best Cocktails, in which Jonathan Gold considers, as you can probably infer from the title, the best cocktails in Los Angeles. To celebrate the happy event, we're giving you a cocktail a day here on Squid Ink. Last Friday's drink was Cole's' Old-Fashioned; today's is the Beer Float from Golden State's Jason Bernstein. Here's what Gold has to say about the drink (below), and if you turn the page, we've gotten the recipe so you can make it at home. Who says you have to read your morning paper with a cup of coffee. Cheers.

Beer Float:

Might your idea of a cocktail be expansive enough to include a beer float? Because if you are open-minded about these things, it can be mind-blowing, a marriage of cold creaminess and explosive fizz, innocent sweetness and a blast of pungent, hoppy bitterness. As served at Golden State, most famous for its gooey cheeseburgers, the beer float is practically a sacrament, a scoop of brown-bread ice cream from the cult ice cream parlor Scoops moistened gently with Old Rasputin Imperial Stout — caramelized intensity playing against caramelized intensity, brown against brown, rich against richer. The beer float has become almost a standard since Golden State introduced it to Los Angeles, but this is still where you will find it at its best.

Beer Float

From: Jason Bernstein of Golden State.

Note: Avoid using Irish stouts like Guinness, as there isn't enough alcohol to properly emulsify the fat in the ice cream. Bernstein calls for vanilla ice cream in this recipe, but uses brown bread gelato from Scoops in his floats.

Makes: 1 drink

10 oz. imperial stout (like North Coast Old Rasputin)

2 scoops vanilla ice cream

1. Pour the stout into a pint glass.

2. Gently stir in the ice cream. Serve immediately.

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