Pints By Beth: Homemade Ice Cream Made from Scratch

After Beth Mensing’s grandmother passed, the owner of Pints By Beth wanted to spend more time with her grandpa. The two would make ice cream together, continuing a pastime from when her grandmother was alive. Soon after, the chef at the restaurant asked her to create an ice cream for a beer dinner. She made a blonde fatal peach ice cream, playing with varieties of ice cream and beer pints, and Pints By Beth was born!

Read more about Pints By Beth below:

Pints By Beth Q+A

How did you get involved with the Flourish event in Des Moines?

Beth Mensing: When I decided to make the leap into business in 2022, I was driving through Highland Park and saw that there was a space and I thought, "This is going to be beautiful!" I was going to try to take this big leap and make a space happen. I consulted with some folks about making that happen when was mentioned to me. I had already been introduced to Pi Birds and Bread by Chelsa B, who were pitching that year. They were pitching in the fall of 2022, and I had it in my brain that I needed to pitch in 2023. I'm a natural storyteller and I also work in education and have done group facilitation and education for years so speaking to a crowd and telling stories is something I'm with ... so I appropriately pulled at their heartstrings and won the pitch.

Is your space in Highland Park where you’re hoping to build something?

BM: I was stopped at the stoplight headed west and the space was to my right with a for lease sign. I asked my friend Drew, who owns Slow Down Coffee Co. about it. He said the property manager was the same as his building and to reach out to him and that he was a great property manager. I sat on it for two weeks, but Drew insisted that I call him. After a lot of convincing, I decided to go for it. I jumped in ... I jumped hard. It is a challenge to go from a model where I'm just making and selling half pints and pints and quarts to thinking about what all I need to make this space exist. Fortunately, there are programs like Invest DSM and the Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization Grant from the City of Des Moines to help with some of the infrastructure of bringing the building up to code. But there's still so much that must go into it. I've been working towards this for two years, and the building owner has saved the space for me. I do pay a little bit of rent every month, and I do have a lease now. I'm still moving forward. I’m working a full-time job while doing this so I do two events a month — one that I know will guarantee me the bottom amount of money that I need to make and the other will be on top of that, which allows me to put some in the bank and look like a more desirable loan candidate.

What does the ice cream making process look like?

BM: The process for me is, depending on how much I make, usually making the base takes me about an hour to an hour-and-a-half, obviously depending on how much I'm making to heat everything up to the appropriate temperature and then bring it back down in a food safe manner. And then I usually will store it overnight in the refrigerator, and that kind of gives a chance to kind of cure or just set up. The colder you make that base when it goes into whatever machine you're using to churn, and the faster it actually starts to form those ice crystals, the smoother and creamier the ice cream's actually going to be. There's a whole science to it.

My friend Carla Walsh gave me a book called, "Hello. My name is Ice Cream," and it's all about the science behind ice cream, and it's fascinating. And so reviewing that has made me a much better producer. And I think my ice cream is really, really good. I won't go as far to say that it's the best in Des Moines because I haven't tried everybody's and I don't want to be that boastful, but I'm going to give 'em a run for their money when I open, that's for sure!

What is your favorite flavor to make?

BM: I don’t have children, but this question is a little like asking me to pick a favorite child. I have different flavors that I enjoy making for different reasons. I love trying something new and coming up with the concept from scratch and deciding I’m going to have this base ice cream flavor and put this missing in. I bake the cookies and cakes myself and come up with the idea of what I want, and this is one of my favorite things to do.

I love my monster cookie ice cream because it ends up tasting like frozen monster cookie dough and the process of making it is different. I use this old wooden bucket metal canister, ice and rock salt machines. It’s a return to basics and how I learned to make ice cream from my grandparents.

I do things seasonally, usually, so another one that comes to mind is my lemon basil ice cream that smells fantastic. Lemon basil … I’ve only found it at one stand at the Downtown Farmers’ Market and Beaverdale Farmers’ Market, and that’s Sue’s Garden, and they only have it for a short time. This year, though, they’ve had it for longer, so I’ve gotten to make a lot of lemon basil ice cream. The seasonal things are really special!

What’s one piece of advice from your network that stuck with you as you built your business?

BM: The piece of advice I wish I had had years ago and even when I started exploring the option of space is get a business checking account immediately. Keep your finances separate and keep track of everything from the beginning, because going back and figuring it out has been a disaster for me. Fortunately, I've been able to cobble it all together with the help of an accountant, but that is like the bookkeeping part. Don't ignore it because it's just not something you're good at. You have to do it from the beginning.

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The Greater Des Moines Partnership celebrates the Greater Des Moines (DSM) entrepreneur community and helps small businesses succeed with one-of-a-kind resources and opportunities for networking. Find out how other entrepreneurs have found success by reading their stories and attending local small business events in the region.