(Based on an article originally printed in Mid-Atlantic Brewing News)
Brews Brothers (Steve Frank and Arnold Meltzer)
If bread is the staff of life, then beer bread is clearly double the staff of life. The two have been linked throughout history. One theory of the origin of beer is that warm grain porridge was left to simmer over a low fire and wild yeasts fermented the mixture, which the locals found much more tasty than their standard porridge.
Another theory is that bread was left in the rain and again wild yeasts went to work and produced beer. Shades of the Sumerian Ode to Ninkasi, the world’s oldest beer recipe, which uses hardened bread similar to hardtack, called Bappir, as a base. Baking the bread drove out the moisture and probably helped preserve the grains. A growing number of anthropologists believe that beer is the reason homo sapiens settled into an agricultural life, since the nomadic lifestyle did not permit growing or collecting large volumes of grain for making beer. The best of both worlds is beer bread which can have subtle differences in flavor depending on the type of beer to be used in making the bread. A simple recipe, taking only 10 minutes to prepare one loaf, was used with four different beer styles to make and compare four breads: sweet Floris raspberry lambic from Belgium’s Huyghe Brewery, the hoppy Loose Cannon from Baltimore’s Clipper City Brewery, a deep malt Sam Adam’s Double Bock, and the chocolatey, roasty Victory Storm King. As with any recipe, do not use a weak flavored beer or one that you would not drink. Each of the breads displayed the character of the beer that was used, although not as intensely as in the respective beers, other than the raspberry flavor from the lambic, which was our wives’ clear favorite. It brought on visions of clotted cream and tea. Clearly, one must bake with beers that have a fairly aggressive flavor profile or the flavors will wash out with the baking. An adaptation would be to use two bottles of beer, using one to add to the batter and the other to drink while the bread is baking, once again proving you should only bake with beer you would drink. The following recipe makes a one pound loaf:
Ingredients

• 3 cups of self-rising flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 12 ounces of beer at room temperature

Procedure

1. Combine all the ingredients and mix energetically by hand until the flour is moistened completely and you have a uniform mixture.
2. Spoon into a greased or sprayed standard 9x5x3 inch loaf pan, filling it about 1/2-2/3rds .
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for one hour.
4. After 60 minutes, test the bread to see if it is finished baking by inserting and extracting a toothpick. If wet dough clings to it, the bread needs more time in the oven. If it comes out dry, then the bread is finished.
5. Allow to cool and then turn over the pan to release the bread.
6. Enjoy the beer bread.

After inhaling the wonderful aromas for an hour and letting the breads cool, we, our wives and friends gorged ourselves on the breads. The color of the breads reflected lighter versions of the beers that were used from the white Loose Cannon to the chocolate brown of Storm King. While the bread batters had a somewhat different consistency, with the batter made from the lambic being the thinnest of the group, the airy, smooth consistency of the baked bread was the same and all tasted delicious. Each of the breads had more intense beer flavors on the second day. The Loose Cannon had a somewhat salty crust and tasted similar to a soda bread with a touch of light bitter hops which increased on the second day or, as a friend put it, it was like a lupulin slam. The Sam Adams’ Double Bock bread was tan colored, with a big beer aroma including a touch of alcohol, a nutty taste and a hint of malt. The malt came out much more on the second day along with notes of molasses. The bread made with Storm King was the darkest bread and had a slightly bitter, tart and roast aftertaste with a slight tingling on the tongue. The bitterness and roast both deepened on the second day. Lastly, the Floris raspberry lambic bread had a lovely raspberry aroma and a medium sweet raspberry jam taste which remained and heightened on the next day.