Beer Bread

[stronk]

I'm thinking of starting to make varieties of beer bread. My plan was to use a very malty beer instead of water when making the dough. Perhaps I should just mix the beer's yeast into suspension and let it rise with that, rather than baker's yeast?

Has anyone got any ideas (I'm starting in a few days)?

[fretlessman71]

I always used self-rising flour, sugar, and a bottle of beer. I tried adding two eggs once, it seemed to keep it moister.

[stronk]

Thanks. Of course, I'm making English-style bread (not sweet-dough), so I don't think I'll use any more than a teaspoon of sugar for the yeast.

I'll try just using the beer yeast.

[fretlessman71]

Post your recipe so far, wouldja? I'd be very interested. I've found that hoppy beers do very well in bread - nice little bite to it!

Oh yeah... this wasn't sweet dough either; I just followed the recipe I found. Worked well for my turkey sandwiches!

[stronk]

Well, I'm making this up as I go along:

Plain Flour
Generous sprinkling of salt, whisked into the flour.
1 33cl bottle 'belgian stout' homebrew, with yeast.
2 teaspoons white sugar
mix, knead, leave in warm place for 1-2 hours to rise.
Knead. Leave in warm place for another 1-2 hours.
Bake at 200*C until bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Leave on wire rack to cool.

[Fast_Eddy]

I made a bread use Wyeast 1968 once - I loved it. My wife thought it was too "beery".

[stronk]

'too beery' is a non-sequitur :D

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by stronk
'too beery' is a non-sequitur :D

Nearly an oxymoron too

[stronk]

It's nice to know that beer yeast will make bread. I've already had a prolonged argument with a friend about it (the best he could come up with was: 'I've got a feeling it won't work').

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by stronk
It's nice to know that beer yeast will make bread. I've already had a prolonged argument with a friend about it (the best he could come up with was: 'I've got a feeling it won't work').

I used .25 cup of good slurry. It didn't rise quite as much as you would expect from bread yeast but it was entirely sufficient. It produced a slightly dense, yeasty, beery bread. Was quite yummy with a little butter and an ESB.

[tyesai]

I have made beer bread a couple times, I used self rising flour, the problem I had was that it was so incredibly heavy and dense, I can find the recipie if you want it but I don't recomend the one I was using, if someone has a good one please post it.

[Payson]

Another level of "beer bread" can be achieved if you add some of your spent grains. As far as how much goes, all I can say is use what looks right. In other words, add them as if they were any other additional ingredient. Ther results are excellent!

[stronk]

Well, it's sitting in the (warm) oven rising at the moment. I had to use bread yeast, as the cake on the bottom of the bottle was far too small to make it rise effectively; I think it would have taken about 24 hours for a decent-sized starter to have grown (and by that time the starter would have been infected).

The beer I used was also quite a high alcohol one. I can't precisely remember, but I think it was about 8-9%.

The last experiment turned out to be very dense, so I'm just going to let this loaf rise once (without kneading) before I bake it so the bubbles of co2 will be nice and large.

[stronk]

Well, here's the report:

Used plain white flour. Lots of salt (just enough, it turned out). The yeast in the bottom of the bottle wasn't taking; maybe I was being a bit unfair, given that it had been in the bottom of a 9% brew for 2.5 months.

It took ages to rise (about 5 hours), even though the conditions were perfect. Baked for about 45 minutes and allowed to cool a bit on a wire rack.
I cut it while it was still hot from baking and spread it with butter. The taste was great, much better than I had expected for my first time (and ad-libbing the recipe); subtly malty, quite sweet and with a very faint hint of hops.

Thanks for the help, guys. Next time I think I'll make a proper yeast starter with beer yeast and use a less alcoholic beer. I might also try the suggestion about adding grain to it as an adjunct.

PS: It still turned out quite dense, even after 5 hours rising and no secondary kneading.

[Fast_Eddy]

Stronk - if that is your real name(?),


Next time try pitching a watered down part of your slurry from one of your brews. Tell me how yours' comes out.

[stronk]

Name's George (can't remember how I came up with Stronk!).
So: just the yeast and none of the beer?