If your favorite beer comes from a brewery, you may never have experienced the immense pleasure of savoring your own home brew.
Sure, the commercial stuff is fine. But if you want the heartwarming satisfaction of drinking delicious self-brewed beer, you’ll want to try the world’s most popular homebrew recipe, Goat Scrotum Ale.
The goat scrotum sounds absolutely gross, doesn’t it? The truth is that it is a beer that everyone likes. One of the reasons it is so popular is that it can be prepared in a variety of ways and in many custom flavors. If you like chocolate, you can make it taste like bittersweet chocolate. You may prefer a fruity ginger-flavored beer, a spicy mix that will pop the palate, or a smooth, fragrant brew. There are hundreds of possible combinations and creating your own personal varieties is a fascinating hobby.
Goat Scrotum Ale became wildly popular in the early 19th century, when it was known as “Tumultuous Porter”. The deeply satisfying ale remained a favorite among beer drinkers until prohibition came along and the brew and its recipe disappeared. Luckily for us, a researcher named Charles Papazian brought the recipe to a grateful world of homebrewers.
Making Goat Scrotum Ale Papazian style was quite exciting, to say the least! Here are the Papzian ingredients:
5 pounds dark malt extract
1 pound crystal malt
1/4 lb each black patent malt and crushed roasted barley
3 1/2 oz Hallertauer leaf hops
1 cup each brown sugar and molasses
1 pound corn syrup
2 teaspoons plaster
1 teaspoon Irish moss
1 package ale yeast
3/4 cup of corn sugar to prepare the bottle with
To customize your beer and create your own specialty beer, you can use these optional ingredients in any combination of your choice:
2 to 4 oz freshly grated ginger root
Up to 2 inches of licorice
2 tablespoons of fir gasoline
1 to 10 dried chili
1/4 cup lightly crushed juniper berries
6 oz unsweetened Bakers chocolate or cocoa powder
The following are Mr. Papzian’s instructions:
Soak the crystal malt in the brew water for one hour at 150 ° F. Remove the excess crystal malt and mix in the dark malt extract, brown sugar, molasses, and one pound of corn sugar.
Bring to a gentle boil until all ingredients are completely dissolved. Add a quarter ounce of hops and any optional ingredients you choose to use. Boil fifteen minutes. Then add half an ounce of hops and boil another fifteen minutes.
Add the black patent malt and crushed roasted barley. Boil for another
fifteen minutes. Add another quarter ounce of hops and the gypsum and Irish moss. Boil for thirteen minutes. Now add the remaining ounce and a half of hops, boiling for two more minutes.
Let the wort cool down to room temperature. Strain carefully while transferring the liquid to the fermenter. When the temperature of the wort drops below 80 ° F, add the yeast.
And finally, when the wort has completely finished fermenting, add three-quarters of a cup of corn sugar.
Now you’re ready to bottle your delicious creation and wait for that tempting first sip.