The Fresh Loaf

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Substituting water with ale beer? What's going to happen?

TurboLover's picture
TurboLover

Substituting water with ale beer? What's going to happen?

Guys, what would happen if I used ale beer instead of water to bake my artisan bread? Has anybody try this and what were the results? 

Thanks for all the advice.

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Many recipe out there.  Typically a stout or Porter is used.  Nothing that’s overly bitter or hoppy.  Recipe in this blog post.

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/69398/potato-bread-oatmeal-stout-sourdough-and-discard-chocolate-chip-cookies

rondayvous's picture
rondayvous

To reduce the alcohol so you don't retard your yeast.

alcophile's picture
alcophile

I made (link) the Pain au Cidre 71% rye bread from Ginsberg's The Rye Baker using hard apple cider (6.5% ABV). The alcohol didn't seem to interfere too much with the yeast in this recipe, but the high rye content may help with that(?).

rondayvous's picture
rondayvous

It might have been a combination of alcohol-resistant strains of yeast (the luck of the draw) and/or 6.5% cider, leaving enough breathing room for the yeast to ferment after being buffered by the flour. Either way, I doubt there is a lot of room to argue that evaporating some of the alcohol would not benefit the rise. As far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong), alcohol does not benefit dough when fermenting bread. Unless of course, boiling off the alcohol would raise the PH?

alcophile's picture
alcophile

Nope. Straight dough; yeast only. Fab flavor with no SD LAB.

Alan.H's picture
Alan.H

I have often used beer, mostly stout, in my bread making. What would happen? Well first of all the kitchen will fill with the most glorious fruity aroma when you bake it and the result will be a loaf of bread with an enriched flavour but not tasting of beer.

I use a standard 500ml bottle of stout and top that up with water to give me about 75% hydration with whatever combination of flour I'm using.

The alcohol content has caused no problems with the ferment and I have never boiled the beer.

Here is an example using a regional variety of stout from a Yorkshire brewery.  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61282/triple-chocoholic

 

rondayvous's picture
rondayvous

reminds me of a joke I was told many years ago. A person complains to their companion; You are fat, stupid and ugly! to which the companion replies; I’m not fat, and walks away.

‘After doing a little research, the tipping point for alcohol is around 11-12%.

Alan.H's picture
Alan.H

I had first decided to ignore what was no more than a cheap and childish personal gibe from you but on reflection, thinking about the high standards courtesy and respect that that we are all used to from other Fresh Loaf posters, it seems right to ask you what was the point of your "joke" which was in no way related to the subject of beer in bread.Do you really think it is acceptable to insult anyone who might disagree with you?

There is a well known quote that you are probably not familiar with,  "If you have nothing useful to say then it is far better to leave it unsaid"

rondayvous's picture
rondayvous

alcohol tipping point for addition to dough is useful information. the fact that I find it humorous when people obsess over one sentence in a paragraph of information to the exclusion of everything else might be an eccentricity of mine. FWIW, I found your reply humorous for the same reason, I never disagreed with you, I was simply repeating information I had come across suggesting alcohol was a potential issue. I even went so far as to validate the claim that beer should not be an issue, since it falls well below the 11% threshold.

No offence intended.

TurboLover's picture
TurboLover

Thank you guys for all the info. I'm going to give it a try and see for myself how it works out.