Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Nettle Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the nettle liquid
Cut off the tops of the nettles and wash them well.
Cover the nettles with water in a six-quart saucepan and bring to a boil.
Boil for twenty minutes.
Pour the nettles into a big pan through a colander and press out all the moisture with a wooden spoon until no more liquid is extracted.
You should have between four and five quarts of liquid.
Make the wort
While hot, add the brown sugar and golden syrup.
When lukewarm, mix in the German yeast, tartaric acid, carbonate of soda, ground ginger, and more sugar if desired.
Cover and let it stand overnight.
In the morning, if little froth has risen, place it by the kitchen fire for one to two hours to activate the yeast.
Bottle and serve
Skim and bottle in two half-gallon stone bottles, corking tightly.
It will be ready in twenty-four hours.
Pour carefully to avoid shaking the bottle.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Syrup + gingertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together950 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tops of nettles
- Provide the main flavour and the bulk of the liquid base for the beer.
- Brown sugar
- Supplies fermentable sugar that feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and depth.
- Golden syrup
- Adds more fermentable sugar, sweetness and a rounded caramel flavour.
- German yeast
- Ferments the sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol, making the drink fizzy.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports the fermentation.
- Ground ginger
- Contributes warm, spicy aroma to the finished drink.
The step that matters
Bottling before fermentation is complete. Yeast keeps producing carbon dioxide after bottling, and the bottles are corked tightly. If the liquid is bottled too early or the wort is not fermented enough, pressure can build and bottles may burst. Pouring gently avoids shaking up sediment and gas.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Nutmegfits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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