Sugar Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar base
Boil sugar in soft water until dissolved.
Add extract of gentian to taste.
Cool the mixture.
Work it as other beers.
Make the bran liquor
In a separate pot, boil a peck of wheat bran in 6 gallons of soft water until the bran sinks.
Strain the bran.
Add extract of gentian or hops.
Heat the mixture.
Stir in treacle.
Add yeast according to strength.
Whisk well to aerate.
Introduce any desired herbs into the boiler.
Barrel and seal
Barrel the mixture immediately.
Seal when fermentation ceases.
Bottle part of it to prevent flatness in hot weather.
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
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Provides the fermentable sugar that yeast converts into alcohol and carbonation.
- Treacle
- Adds dark sweetness and body, and supplies extra fermentable sugar.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Wheat bran (in the method)
- Contributes grainy flavour and body to the liquor.
The step that matters
Seal when fermentation ceases. Sealing before fermentation has fully finished can trap pressure in the barrel, while sealing too late risks spoilage and off flavours. Fermentation activity is the signal to watch.
“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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