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Molasses Beer

A fermented beverage made from hops, wheat bran, water, molasses, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and molasses work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 702 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Molasses Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Boil hops and wheat bran in water for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture and pour it into a cask with one head removed.

  3. Stir in molasses until well mixed.

  4. Cover the barrel with a cloth.

Ferment and bottle

  1. When moderately warm, add yeast and stir in.

  2. Seal the barrel with a cloth and board.

  3. Once fermented and clear, bottle the beer.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Hops + wheattop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the molasses.
Molasses
Supplies sugars that the yeast ferments into alcohol, adding sweetness.
Yeast
Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.

The step that matters

Adding the yeast at moderate warmth. Yeast is killed by high heat and works slowly when cold. Adding it only when the mixture is moderately warm lets it multiply and start fermenting steadily, which keeps the brew from spoiling or stalling.

“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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