Inspired by my success with pumpkin pasties I decided to try making butter beer. This is another Harry Potter inspired recipe.
I’m a real ale drinker, I like drinking good British beer. However whilst doing my research almost every recipe that I found is an attempt to copy this beverage. This is a non alcoholic cold drink largely sold at Warner Bros locations Worldwide. So when I came across this video by Tasting History with Max Miller I was extremely grateful. I’ve copied his recipe more or less verbatim from his video below and I’ll describe the process as I go.
The recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 3 Pints (1500ml/48oz) of good quality British Ale
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 225g demerara or brown sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- 113g unsalted butter
MODERN METHOD.
Take 5 yolks and beat them with the demerara or brown sugar until light and frothy. Set aside.
Pour the ale into a saucepan. Try to not create too much foam. Stir in the spices.
Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer for 2 minutes. For a non-alcoholic drink, leave at medium heat and boil for 20 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the egg and sugar mixture. Then return the pot to low heat until the liquid starts to thicken. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Add in the diced butter and stir until melted. Then froth the buttered beer with a hand whisk and let simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow buttered beer to cool to a warm but drinkable temperature. Then whisk again and serve warm.
*This can be served cold by chilling the beer, then mixing it with cold milk (1 part beer/1 part milk)
Max credits this blog post and recipe at Oakden.co.uk as his inspiration and it’s well worth a read.
Making Butter Beer
Reading and making are two different things. Butter Beer includes eggs and I once ruined a lovely egg custard destined for an ice cream by scrambling it. I’m now generally a touch cautious with these types of recipe.
I followed Max Miller’s recipe as closely as I could and chose Fuller’s London Pride which is a decidely decent pint even in cans. It’s even mentioned in my hand me down copy of The Beer Drinker’s Companion by Frank Baillie. It’ a beer with a sweet hoppy taste, more on that later.
So I followed the butter beer recipe pouring 3 pints into a large saucepan. Then adding the ginger and nutmeg and 2 whole cloves. The recipe talks about ground cloves but I wasn’t ready for that level of spice risk.
And now the butter beer sacrilege begins. We’re going to make a beer custard. 5 egg yolks and 225 grammes of demerara sugargo into a bowl and are beaten together they’ll take on a soft butter or whipped double cream like texture.
Now in Max’s recipe he adds the eggs to the beer. My experience has always been add the hot to the cold and that’s what I did. I heated the beer to about 80degC and gently poured it in whisking the whole time. Once I’d added about equal parts beers to egg mix I felt confident about adding the egg mix to the beer.
At this stage I had to be careful as I didn’t want to ruin the been by curdling the eggs. I used a thermometer and raised the temperature slowly and kept it stirring. I lost my nerve at about 84 DegC but it hadn’t really thickened to my satisfaction. After this I added the butter and whisked it in as it melted.
Finally I had the warm butter beer. The butter did separate a little if left but stirred back in well.
The main problem was the taste, the hoppy beer served warm was not unpleasant but it wasn’t pleasant either. EmmCee turned her nose up after a single sip. I drank about a pint and enjoyed it but it was a sipping drink. The hoppy beer made teh drink a bit bit and a bit floral for sweetly rich eggs and butter concoction.
I did try it agin the next day cool served with whole milk. I sweetened the milk with a little maple syrup. This whilst still rich was a much more appetising if not traditional drink. Like a very rich slightly bitter and hoppy milk shake. I’ll be drinking it again like this soon.
I put this one down as a miss. But I may do a bit of research and find a slightly less hoppy beer and see if that improves matters warm.