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Drink

Small Beer

A low-alcohol beverage made by boiling water, molasses, wheat bran, and hops, then fermenting with yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and wheat work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 702 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Small Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Brew

  1. Boil water, molasses, wheat bran, and hops together for 3 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture into a clean cask.

Ferment and bottle

  1. When milky warm, pour in the yeast and shake well.

  2. Stop the cask tightly and bottle when the mixture is clear.

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 + wheattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Wheat + hopstop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Molasses + hopstop 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

Molasses
Provides sugars that the yeast ferments, giving the beer its sweetness and body.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, carbonating the beer.
Hops
Adds bitterness that balances the sweetness of the molasses.
Wheat bran
Adds grain flavor and starches that contribute to the brew's body.

The step that matters

Add the yeast when the mixture is only milky warm. Yeast is killed by liquid that is too hot, while liquid that is too cold slows fermentation. Warm but not hot wort lets the yeast multiply and start working steadily.

“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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