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Dr. Stonehouse's Easy Instructions for Treacle Beer

A fermented beverage made from boiling water, treacle, ginger, bay leaves, and yeast, optionally flavored with gentian root, lemon, or orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Dr. Stonehouse's Easy Instructions for Treacle Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. In a large pot, combine boiling water, treacle, ginger, and bay leaves.

  2. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Ferment and package

  1. Once cool, add a little yeast spread on a piece of toasted bread to the liquid.

  2. Allow the mixture to ferment until bubbling stops.

  3. Bottle or barrel the beer for immediate use.

  4. If storing, add a small piece of gentian root and lemon or orange peel.

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

What each ingredient does

Treacle
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments, and the dark color and rich sweetness of the beer.
Yeast
Consumes the sugars during fermentation, producing carbonation and alcohol.
Ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma and flavor to the beer.

The step that matters

Let the wort cool before adding yeast. Yeast is killed or weakened by hot liquid, so the mixture must be cool before the yeast goes in for fermentation to start reliably.

“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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