If your favorite beer comes from a brewery, you may never have experienced the overwhelming pleasure of savoring your own home brew.

Sure, business stuff is fine. But if you want the soulful satisfaction of savoring a delicious beer you’ve brewed yourself, you’ll want to try the world’s most popular homebrew recipe, Goat Scrotum Ale.

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 dark chocolate. You may prefer a fruity ginger ale, a palate-popping spicy concoction, or a smooth, fragrant ale. There are hundreds of possible combinations and creating your own personal strains is a fascinating hobby.

Goat Scrotum Ale became very popular in the early 19th century, when it was known as “Tumultuous Porter”. The deeply satisfying beer remained a favorite of beer drinkers until Prohibition came along and the beer and its recipe disappeared. Lucky for us, a researcher named Charles Papazian brought the recipe back to the cherished world of homebrewers.

Making Papazian-style Goat Scrotum Ale was pretty exciting, to say the least! Here are the Papzian ingredients:

5 pounds of dark malt extract
1 pound crystal malt
1/4 lb each of proprietary black malt and roasted crushed barley
3 1/2 oz Hallertauer leaf hops
1 cup brown sugar and blackstrap molasses
1 pound corn syrup
2 teaspoons of plaster
1 teaspoon Irish moss
1 packet of brewer’s yeast
3/4 cup corn sugar to prime the bottle with

To customize your beer and create your own special beer, you can use these optional ingredients in any combination you like:

2 to 4 oz freshly grated ginger root
Up to 2 inches making licorice
2 tablespoons of fir gasoline
1 to 10 dried chilies
1/4 cup lightly crushed juniper berries
6 oz Bakers chocolate without sugar or cocoa powder

The following are Mr. Papzian’s instructions:

Soak the crystal malt in the brew water for one hour at 150F. Remove any leftover crystal malt and mix in the dark malt extract, brown sugar, blackstrap 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 a half ounce of hops and boil another fifteen minutes.
Blend in the black patent malt and crushed roasted barley. boil for another
fifteen minutes. Add another quarter ounce of hops and the plaster 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 to room temperature. Strain carefully while transferring the liquid to the fermenter. When the temperature of the wort drops below 80F, add the yeast.

And finally, when the wort has fully finished fermenting, add three-fourths cups of corn sugar.

Now you’re ready to bottle your delicious creation and await that first tantalizing sip.