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Drink

Treacle Beer

A fermented beverage made from boiling water, treacle, ginger, balm leaves, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Treacle Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the wort

  1. Boil the water, treacle, ginger, and balm leaves together for 15 minutes.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Add a little yeast.

  2. The next day, transfer it to a barrel.

  3. After 2 days, draw it off into clean, dry stone bottles and cork them well.

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 the yeast ferments, and adds sweetness and rich colour.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbonation in the finished drink.
Ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma and flavour to the beer.
Balm leaves
Contribute a light, herbal aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Add the yeast only after the mixture has cooled. Yeast is killed by hot liquid, so adding it to the boiled mixture too early can stop fermentation before it starts. Cooling first keeps the yeast alive so it can convert the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

“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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