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Drink

Hop Beer

A fermented beverage made from hops, molasses, eggs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,879 recipes. The science ↓

Hop Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the hops in a bag and boil them in 3 pails full of water for 15 minutes.

  2. While the mixture is hot, add the molasses and pour it into a strong ale cask that can be sealed tightly.

  3. Add the remaining cold water to the cask.

Ferment

  1. Let the mixture cool, then add the eggs.

  2. Store in a warm place to ferment; it will keep for 6 to 8 months.

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 + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,879 recipes
  2. Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes
  3. Hops + eggtop 42% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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
Provides sugar for fermentation and a rich, sweet flavour.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Eggs added to hot liquid begin to cook and clump instead of blending smoothly. Cooling the mixture first keeps the eggs evenly dispersed in the liquid.

“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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