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Molasses-beer

Molasses Beer is a fermented beverage made from soft water, West India molasses, hops, and beer yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and beer work together. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Molasses-beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Combine 6 gallons of soft water and 6 pints of West India molasses in a large pot.

  2. Add a handful of hops tied in a muslin bag and bring to a boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Once cooled, stir in 1 pint of lively beer yeast.

  2. Cover the mixture with a coarse cloth and let it ferment.

  3. After fermentation, pour the beer into clean bottles and seal with good corks.

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 + beertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + hopstop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes
  3. Hops + beertop 42% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together0 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Supplies the sugar the yeast ferments into alcohol and gives the beer its rich, sweet flavor.
Lively beer yeast
Consumes the sugars and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide, which carbonates the beer.
Hops
Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the yeast. Yeast cells are killed by hot liquid, so adding the yeast before the mixture has cooled can stop fermentation before it starts.

“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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