Add Beer To Your Sourdough For Unbeatable Flavor

When you compare the elements of beer and sourdough bread, you'll see they have a lot in common. Both are combinations of grains and yeast, and both rely on fermentation, which releases alcohol and carbon dioxide. In a TED talk, master breadmaker Peter Reinhart said to laughter, "Beer is basically liquid bread, or bread is solid beer." Naturally, for the best of both worlds, you should combine them. Replacing water with beer in your favorite sourdough recipe will reward you with a unique, flavor-packed bread that will blow your mind. The toasted malt flavors of your favorite beer will marry perfectly with the yeasty bread and deep brown, crispy, caramelized crust.

Reinhart boosted the flavor of his TED talk bread with spent grain leftover from beer making. But if you want to elevate the flavor of sourdough bread, there's no need to gather spent grain from a brewery; just replace some or all of the water in your bread-making process with a beer you love.

Adding beer to sourdough bread will take some experimentation, as it changes some key bread-making conditions. To make great bread, you need the right amount of rise in the dough, which depends on having an environment conducive to the life of the yeast and enough sugar to feed them. While beer will add bubbly carbon dioxide and plenty of sugar to the dough, a higher-alcohol beer could kill off some of the yeast. This won't ruin your bread, but it can make the proofing stage take longer, sometimes by several hours. Typically when making sourdough, the dough will be kneaded and left to rise. After the initial rise, the dough will be punched down and left to rise again. This second proof might take longer with beer due to the alcohol content. Be sure to patiently wait for the dough to double in size during the second rise before moving on with your recipe, or you could have a denser bread after baking.

To tip the scales in your direction, try using a beer that is lower in alcohol. Guinness is a perfect choice for beer bead because it is relatively low in alcohol and higher in sugar. You can also speed things up by using room-temperature beer. Also, it's a good idea to make sure you are in a warm room, which will help the bread rise faster.

To make the best sourdough beer bread, you also need to follow classic bread-making guidelines. Making bread is a science, and even slight variations in ingredients and baking conditions can have a big impact on the final product. Using a scale to measure ingredients for bread is just one bread-baking hack you should know, and will make a huge difference in your final product. Using weight takes volume issues with different ingredients out of the equation, resulting in more consistent results.

Also, don't over-knead your dough, as this will result in dense bread that will never get the loft you crave. Beer has carbonation, which will add height to your dough; kneading could push out the tiny bubbles. To test if the bread dough is ready to bake, you can "pull a window" and stretch a small piece of the dough. If the gluten has developed enough, you will be able to see through the stretched dough and it will not break. Before baking, score your bread so it doesn't crack when it expands. To make your bread easier to score, you can always toss it in the freezer for 30 seconds!