Why it works: Hops and molasses work together. They rank in the top 41% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. The science ↓
Hop Beer
2 gallonsIngredients
Directions
Make the brew
Boil the hops in water for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture and add molasses.
Add enough water to make a total of 2 gallons.
When the mixture is warm, add the yeast.
Let it stand overnight.
Bottle
Skim off the yeast carefully and pour the liquid into bottles.
Add wintergreens before sealing the bottles.
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.
-
Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hops
- Adds bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the molasses.
- Molasses
- Provides sugar that the yeast ferments, and a dark, rich flavour.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars, producing carbonation and alcohol in the brew.
- Wintergreens
- Contributes a minty, aromatic flavour to the finished beer.
The step that matters
Skim off the yeast carefully. Disturbing the settled yeast can cloud the liquid and carry sediment into the bottles, which can make the beer cloudy and cause uneven fermentation in storage.
“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