Why it works: Malt and hops work together. They rank in the top 49% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Wicklow Ale
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine 6 bushels of coarsely ground pale malt with 2 pounds of hops in a large brewing vessel.
Mash and brew
For the first mash, add 1 barrel of cold water to every 4 barrels of boiling water in the copper as it begins to boil.
For the second mash, add 1 barrel of cold water to every 6 barrels of boiling water.
Allow the mixture to brew for 2 hours for each mash.
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.
-
Malt + hopstop 49% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1 recipe
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pale malt
- Provides the sugars that yeast later ferments, and the main body of the ale.
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the malt's sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the cold water to the boiling water. Cold water is mixed into the boiling water to bring the mash to a workable temperature. Adding it in the stated ratio matters because the mash temperature controls how well the malt's starches convert to fermentable sugars.
“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.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipes