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Drink

Honey Beer

A fermented beverage made from honey, water, hops, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and hops work together. They rank in the top 41% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Honey Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Mix honey, water, and hops in a large pot.

  2. Boil gently for one hour.

  3. Strain the mixture and transfer it into a cask.

  4. Allow it to stand overnight.

Ferment

  1. Add the yeast and let it ferment for a week to ten days.

  2. While the beer is fermenting, add a little honey and water every morning to keep the cask full.

  3. Gradually stop fermentation by placing a piece of brown paper over the hole.

  4. Lightly insert the bung, tightening it every second day until secure.

  5. Allow the beer to stand for at least six weeks.

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

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.

  1. Honey + hopstop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1 recipe

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Honey
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol and carbonation.
Hops
Add bitterness and aroma, and help balance the sweetness of the honey.
Yeast
Converts the sugars in the honey mixture into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The step that matters

Adding the yeast and managing fermentation. Yeast needs the cooled, strained liquid to ferment properly. Keeping the cask topped up prevents air exposure that can spoil the beer, and a loosely fitted bung lets carbon dioxide escape without letting in too much air.

“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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