Why it works: Hops and molasses work together. They rank in the top 41% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. The science ↓
Spruce Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brew
Boil the hops in 1 gallon of water for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture and add 16 gallons of warm water.
Stir in 2 gallons of molasses and 8 ounces of essence of spruce dissolved in 1 quart of water.
Transfer the mixture to a clean cask and shake well.
Ferment and bottle
Add ½ pint of yeast and let it stand for 1 week, reducing the time in warm weather.
When ready to bottle, add 1 teaspoon of molasses to each bottle.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hops
- Add bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the molasses.
- Molasses
- Provides sugar that the yeast ferments, producing alcohol and carbonation.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide that gives the beer its fizz.
- Essence of spruce
- Supplies the main piney, resinous flavour that defines the beer.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast and letting it stand. Yeast must be fully mixed into the cooled liquid before fermentation starts. Warm weather speeds fermentation, so the standing time must be shortened to avoid over-fermenting and excess pressure in the cask and bottles.
“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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