There's nothing better than a cold beer right after work - and now restaurants are suggesting New Yorkers drink it right after dinner.

Dessert beers are popping up on city menus as the perfect pairing for sweet meal-enders.

Renee Lipski's husband, Michael, thought she was crazy when she ordered a beer float at the Chocolate Room in Brooklyn, but ended up finishing it off for her. The dessert pairs a chocolate stout with vanilla ice cream, and while it's reminiscent of a root beer float, it's decidedly less sweet.

"I ordered it because I didn't want something that would be overly sweet, and it was really refreshing," says the Brooklyn homemaker.

Rich Lindy, who lives on the upper West Side and works in real estate, liked the float for another reason: "It sort of keeps the buzz going," he admits.

The reasoning behind the trend: Beer's flavor is better suited to sweets than most wines, says Julie Bradford, editor of the magazine All About Beer.

"Few wines pair well with sweet foods," she says. "But while wine with dessert is problematic, beer and dessert is a great combination."

Spiced, malt-heavy beers (as opposed to bitter lagers and pale ales) are the best at the end of a meal, experts say. Fruit beers, especially Belgian fruit lambics, work, too.

Kevin Garry, assistant beverage director at Gramercy Tavern, serves Harvey & Son Imperial Extra Double Stout with chocolate bread pudding, and J.W. Lee Harvest ale with cheese.

"A lot of beers work well with dessert because their flavor profile is similar to tawny port or sherry," says Garry, who has 30 beers on his vintage list. "Beer with dessert is a concept that really works."

At the Chocolate Room, owner Jon Payson pours Brooklyn Brewery's pumpkin spice ale to go with pumpkin spice ice cream.

At Gotham Bar and Grill, pastry chef Deborah Racicot offers fig focaccia, cheese and nuts paired with a Belgian lambic. She takes the frothy business one step further, freezing beer right into her blackberry ice cream and scooping it onto a peach and blackberry crisp.

When Racicot paired cheesecake with Guinness ice cream, customers requested a scoop of the ice cream on its own. Neville Stoddart, executive chef at Markt, garnishes a lemon tart with a sorbet made with a cherry-flavored beer.

Sometimes a beer is so sweet it makes dessert on its own. New this fall is Barons Black Wattle Superior, which has a nutty caramel flavor and is served at Tribeca Grill. And He'Brew's Origin Pomegranate Ale, sold at Whole Foods, is a dessert beer that satisfies a sweet tooth and a summer thirst.