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Molasses Beer

Molasses beer is brewed by boiling hops and wheat bran, adding molasses, fermenting with yeast, and bottling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and molasses work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 702 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Molasses Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Boil hops and wheat bran in water for 4 hours, then strain.

  2. Transfer the liquid to a cask with one head out.

  3. Add molasses and stir, then cover with a cloth.

Ferment and bottle

  1. When lukewarm, stir in yeast, cover with a cloth and a board.

  2. Once fermented and clear, draw off into well-cleaned bottles.

  3. Soak corks and cork tightly.

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. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Hops + wheattop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Hops
Add bitterness and aroma that balance the sweetness of the molasses.
Molasses
Supplies sugar that the yeast ferments, and adds sweetness and color.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, making the drink fizzy.

The step that matters

Stir in the yeast only when lukewarm. Yeast is killed by high heat, so adding it to hot liquid can stop fermentation. Liquid that is only warm lets the yeast multiply and start working steadily.

“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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