Why it works: Malt and beer work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Strong Beer or Ale
Ingredients
Directions
Mash and boil
Pour hot water over the malt and let it infuse for 3 hours, mashing it in the first half-hour.
Run the mixture over the hops that have been infused in water.
Boil the hops with the wort for 2 hours once it begins to boil.
Ferment
Cool a pailful of the mixture and add 3 quarts of yeast.
Combine the yeast mixture with the rest of the wort when ready, preferably the same night.
Cover the bung-hole with paper after fermentation is complete.
Age
Let the beer stand in casks for 12 months and in bottles for another 12 months before drinking.
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.
-
Malt + beertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together55 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Hops + beertop 42% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together0 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
-
Malt + hopstop 49% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1 recipe
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
- Malt
- Provides the sugars that yeast ferments, which set the beer's strength and body.
- Hops
- Add bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the malt.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the wort into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
The step that matters
Combine the yeast mixture with the rest of the wort when ready, preferably the same night.. Yeast is most active when fresh and well distributed, so adding it promptly helps fermentation start cleanly before the wort spoils or stalls.
“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.
More strong beer recipes
You might also like
Spruce Beer58 recipes
Ginger Beer11 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.