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Drink

Hop Beer

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hop Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brew

  1. Boil the hops with the powdered ginger in 1½ gallons of water to extract their flavor.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a tub.

  3. Add the molasses and stir well with a wooden ladle until thoroughly mixed.

  4. Transfer the mixture into a barrel.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Fill the barrel with water to the bung, then shake the barrel well.

  2. Leave the bung open to allow fermentation, keeping the barrel filled with water as it ferments.

  3. Once fermentation is complete, bottle the beer, adding a spoonful of molasses to each bottle.

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 + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Hops + gingertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Hops
Provide the bitter, aromatic flavor that gives the beer its character.
Molasses
Supplies sugar for fermentation and adds sweetness and dark, rich flavor.
Powdered ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma and flavor to the brew.

The step that matters

Leave the bung open during fermentation. Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, and a sealed barrel can build pressure. Leaving the bung open lets gas escape while yeast converts sugar, and keeping the barrel topped up with water limits contact with air that could spoil the brew.

“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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