Sally shows you how to make a batch of bread out of the beer or stout left in your fridge.

Robert (husband) has taken to brewing his own beer and stout.  He’s not much of a drinker mind you, but loves playing around with the brews.  There is however, a great quantity building up in the shed.

Last night he left half a stubbie of stout sitting on the bench.  We needed bread so I threw it in as the liquid and was quite pleased with the result.  This morning he told me he had kept a jar of the sludgy dregs from the base of a keg of stout.  Now, that had potential!  I quickly mixed up a batch of bread, incorporating a cupful of the brew.  It worked really well – made a delicious dark loaf.

I remembered he had a stubbie of his beer down here in the house fridge, so made some bread with that also.  It’s about to come out of the oven and looks amazing.  I know it tastes good because I kept back a small piece to make into a bread roll for lunch – so good with pesto and roasted red capsicum.

I still had some of the keg stout dregs left, so decided to see how if t would perform as a raising agent for bread dough, thus eliminating the need to use commercial dried yeast.  I mixed up one cupful of the liquid with 1 cup fo flour and have left it to its own devices.  A couple of hours later it is bubbling away happily and I have great hopes for making a loaf of bread out of it tomorrow.  I think it would be nice if I incorporated some rye flour into it, along with some caraway seeds.

All this works well for me as I hate waste so using the dregs from the home brew keg  is great.

Anyway, here are the recipes for both the beer bread and the stout bread I have made so far.  Both have a lovely yeasty sweetness that is not overpowering.  The colour of the stout bread is astounding.

One final thing – you could add some dried fruit and spices  if you wanted, make it into foccaccia, use it as pizza dough or make bread rolls with it – you are only, as they say, limited by your imagination.

Beer Bread

4 cups plain flour

4 teaspoons dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil

375ml beer (any sort) – or dregs from the keg

125ml hot water

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, sugar and salt.  Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil.  Mix together the beer and hot water – the mixture should be lukewarm; if it’s not, heat on the stove or in the microwave until it is.  Pour into the well in the flour and mix to a soft dough.  Mix well and leave to rise until doubled in size (an hour or two).  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 3 minutes.  Cut into two even sized balls and place side by side in a greased loaf tin (13 x 21cm approximately).

Heat oven to 200 degrees C and, when bread is ready, bake for 40 minutes.  Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Stout Bread

4 cups plain flour

4 teaspoons dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil

1 cup stout (or dregs from stout barrel)

1 cup hot water

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, sugar and salt.  Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil.  Mix together the stout and hot water – the mixture should be lukewarm;  if it’s not, heat on the stove or in the microwave until it is.  Pour into the well in the flour and mix to a soft dough.  Mix well and leave to rise until doubled in size (an hour or two).  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 3 minutes.  Cut into two even sized balls and place side by side in a greased loaf tin (13 x 21cm approximately).

Heat oven to 200 degrees C and, when bread is ready, bake for 40 minutes.  Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.