September 13, 2024 - 5:54am
Replacing liquids with beer in sourdough recipes
Should the beer be allowed to degas i.e. go flat, or should you retain as much CO2 as possible?
Also, what about its temperature? I assume it should be the same as the temp of the liquid you are replacing.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
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Flat is best - but I don't drink flat beer! And room temp is best. Enjoy!
Let it cool to 85° before using it in the recipe.
Sorry.
i use stout in a 50% Wholemeal bread regularly in fact its one of the breads i use when doing a bread class. i often like to get the participants to try a little of the stout to see if they can pick up those malty flavours in the finished loaf. I also homebrew stout out of necessity as i once required 13 litres for a big group bake . I am happy to use it flat or straight from the bottle. As my home brew is bottle fermented it does actually have some live yeast present and this can also do a little work in the Autolyse of the wholemeal flour, I prefer to soak the wholemeal in the liquid for around about an hour so that it can really get into the bran particles. If i'm using the stout at 50% with water i weigh it up and then bring it to the required temperature in the micro wave. Go to the search box and either put in Beer bread or have a look under yozzause and look at some of my previous posts on stout bread. It certainly adds a new dimension and depth of flavour and its not something you will see in the shops. Thanks to GavinC for bringing your post to my attention.
You should allow the beer to go flat; however, not for the purpose of getting rid of CO2, but to allow the alcohol in it to evaporate. Otherwise, the alcohol content will significantly retard the fermentation of your dough. Not so much a problem with wheat-based doughs, but if you are making a high rye content bread, the overly extended fermentation time when proofing can yield a very sour end product which is not particularly desireable.
Larry
I've made cider ryes (30% - 40% rye) many times, using Normandy cider, British cider, Swiss suure moscht and American hard cider straight from the freshly opened bottles -- I think they run between 4% and 8% alcohol -- and have never had any problems with fermentation or sourness.
Of course, ciders are sweeter than beer. Still, I did one bake with freshly pressed cider from a local mill and felt the bread had less character. Maybe I just like the sour flavor?
Rob