HISTORIANS have discovered an early-19th century recipe for home-made beer - including large doses of treacle.

Archivists at the Treasure House in Beverley have found an 1825 recipe, explaining to amateur home-brewers how to make beer.

The document, headed “recipe for cheap beer”, gives instructions on preparing and brewing the ingredients for a drink which it claims will taste “equal to London Porter”.

The recipe says that after mixing mix a peck of barley (about 16 pints), 4oz of hops, 7lbs of the special ingredient treacle and boiling several gallons of water, the brewer would get 72 pints of a strong dark beer, as good as anything available in the pub, the archivists said.

They said the cost for making 72 pints would have been three shillings and threepence, about £8.05 in today’s money - or 11p a pint.

Sam Bartle, collections officer for East Riding Archives and Local Studies Service, said: “The recipe is contained within the notebook of a 19th century general handyman, possibly from the Goole area. The instructions are quite simple but anyone wanting to try out the recipe would have to do so at their own risk.

“Following the recipe would produce a huge amount of beer, 72 pints, and it actually recommends a nine gallon cask for brewing. For it to be tried in most modern homes it would probably require some scaling down of the quantities.”