Cheap Small Beer
{1861}
To twelve quarts of cold water add a pint and a half of strong hop tea, and a pint and a half of molasses. Mix it well together and bottle it immediately. It will be fit for use the next day if the weather is warm.
The one day fermentation has me thinking the recipe is not complete.
Indeed since the recipe does not call for yeast, one would not expect any fermentation to have begun. It likely expected something to happen by adding the molasses, but one would also be culturing any bacteria in the molasses. Bottling it immediately since the swing top beer bottle was invented in 1847...would likely cause some problems containing the gas even if the ABV was going to be 2.3%
I've scaled down the recipe for testing.
To make one quart
28 ounces of water
2 ounces of hop tea
2 ounces molasses.
Original gravity, 1.018 that's bout the same sweetness as a stout or strong porter. which you are going to probably want if it lacks any malt .
Um that is the near the ending measurement of stout or porter due to non-fermentable solids such as starch and protein left in suspension in the beverage. Not necessarily any measure what so ever of the "sweetness". If any fermentable sugars are in the liquid, it will continue to ferment until the ABV reaches near 8%...at that point it might continue further if sugar was available, providing it was a yeast cultivated for higher ABV.
If it fermented out completely it would only be 2.3 % ABV and I doubt that would happen with a wild fermentation.
No reason to expect a "wild" fermentation to halt below 6% and often it will go as high as 8% IF enough sugar is present.
a short fermentation would maintain sweetness to contrast the bitterness of the hop tea, add some carbonation and reduce off flavors.
Probably make a good table beer or small beer.
The only reason the fermentation would be "short" and leave sugar would be if you artificially halted it by pasteurizing the beverage. Another method is to use lactose which is too large a sugar molecule for yeast to digest.
I Gave it a whirl, just like the recipe said (with one caveat), had to have a control for the experiment. The result was flat molasses water. The flavor was not bad, it could have used more hop bitterness and flavor and less molasses flavor, and it definitely needs carbonation. 19th century home sanitation was not what we are accustom to today, and I could not help but sanitize everything. I didn't expect any fermentation to happen in 24 hours. It is also still winter, and there isn't a lot of yeast floating around in the air in my neck of the woods like there would be in the summer. Thinking to myself, I wondered if this was originally made like ginger beer or kombucha relying on a natural starter bug. Or was is mixed in a wooden vessel that contained the yeast, or was barm added.
I see so many recipes similar to this one published in old cookbooks.
I'm going to adjust the recipe slightly, and try again.
I had thought about force carbonating but that wouldn't be very 1861.
It didn't mention boiling, but to keep it from becoming
stagnant, flat molasses water, the recipe should call for a boil. Then call for the addition of a yeast cake.
No reason why there couldn't be carbonation as the swing top bottle was invented by that time.
I have made a molasses based small beer in the past. Used Fuggles hops, and a couple of pints of King brand Po-T-Rick molasses syrup, in three gallons of water. It tasted very similar to beer after a week ferment and a week aging, with a molasses aftertaste. The problem one has is that modern molasses, unsulfured, is not the same as it was in the 18th and early 19th century. Today they extract pretty much all of the fermentables and then add back some simple syrup to provide sweetness. I'd suggest Turkey brand Refiner's Syrup be used, and hops, with a proper hour long simmer. Followed by the addition of a basic ale yeast when the wort has cooled.
LD