After 25 years of hobby brewing, a friend of mine decided to open an artisan brewery, where he focuses on European-style, reinheitsgebot-compliant beers -- generally in the 8.5% alcohol range. I love his stuff, and we've spent hours discussing the finer points of yeast, grain, enzymes and the idiosyncrasies of lacto- and acetobacillus. 

Finally, after some weeks of thinking about it, I took a stab at using one of his beers -- a seasonal doppelbock-style beer with low hops and high wheat content -- in a bread .... and here's the result, a wonderful sweet and malty loaf with just a hint of hops. Even my wife, who doesn't care for strong-tasting bread, likes this one.

 To make it, I used 16oz of beer (boiled to remove the CO2), 4oz water, 12oz KA unbleached bread flour, 10oz medium WW flour, 3oz blackstrap molasses, 1 oz honey, 0.30 oz active dry yeast, 0.60 oz salt. The dough rose quickly, thanks to the molasses and honey, 60 min ferment/45min proof. Baked on a stone preheated to 500 and then reduced to 450 for a total of 20 min.

Enjoy!