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Drink

Hop Beer

A beer brewed with hops, molasses, yeast, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hop Beer

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the hops in 2 gallons of water.

  2. When the mixture is warm, add 1 pint of molasses.

  3. Let it stand overnight.

  4. Skim off the foam and pour the liquid carefully.

  5. Add 1 cup of wintergreen or a cake of yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  6. Bottle the mixture for use.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes
  3. Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hops
Provide the bitter and aromatic flavour that defines the beer.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the liquid.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the liquid, producing carbonation and alcohol.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam and pour the liquid carefully. Foam and sediment left in the liquid can cloud the beer and carry off-flavours. Pouring slowly keeps the settled solids at the bottom of the pot, leaving a clearer brew for bottling.

“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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