Hey BA’s – The wife and I are planning to make a huge vat of chili and a load of beer bread tomorrow night, and we’re wondering which beers would work best incorporated into a bread? We’re looking for a slightly sweeter bread to help cut the spice of the chili, but we also don’t want a diabetes bomb, you know? Thanks for the help.
or this one might help, just did a quick search http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/what-beer-should-i-choose.11106/
I have used 3 beers for beer bread: SN Stout, CCB Florida Cracker, and Bell's Oberon. Florida Cracker was the lightest and least sweet of the 3.
I've made it a several times. Easy to make and I tweaked the recipe so the last couple of times I've made it it's been especially good. I have the recipe at home so if I remember I'll post it tonight. Tried it with pale ales, porter, and stout, but I've had best results with non-hoppy beer like a lager (even pbr turned out good) or a strong ale. Wanting to try it with a Hef sometime too.
I've used Troegs Dream weaver and Allagash White in breads before, both came out pretty nice. Spice comes through slightly more with Allagash, and both were slightly sweet but not overly so.
my buddy made one with a heady topper the other week and sent me a picture. I sent him expletives. His excuse-"well, I have like 36 of them in my fridge and I need to clear some space out"
I tend to just use whatever beer is leftover from a family function that I'm not particularly interested in, or the remnants of a disappointing six pack. In general, I've liked things like brown ales and porters to pilsners or IPAs.
I've tried a few different varieties and I definitely didn't like it with overly hoppy/bitter beers myself.
The folks in the Beer & Food forum often discuss strategies for using Beer with bread and/or chili. They may have some recipes for you to look at.
I have been baking bread for about 10 years now, mostly sourdough. While I have not baked that many loaves of beer bread I have had best results with porters/stouts. It also depends on what type of flours you are using: AP, bread flour, wheat, or other grains. A fellow baker and beer enthusiast has baked some great beer bread with Guinness. He keeps the hydration level the same whether using 100% beer or 50-50 water-beer. In one of my bread blogs some bakers have been using the spent grains from brewing beer and using that to help augment the flour. If you are a hard core baker I do have a recipe for bread baked with Stone's Arrogant Bastard - PM me for details. It turned out pretty damn good.
This recipe works great. It's a Food Network recipe with a couple modifications... Best results have been with a beer that's not too hoppy. We didn't care for the ones with roasted malts either, but you can experiment... Ingredients: 3 Cups AP Flour (sifted) 3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/4 cup sugar 12 ounces beer (lager, malty ale, or a hefeweizen) 1/2 cup unsalted butter (see below) Freeze 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter then grate using the large holes on a grater. Preheat oven to 375 degrees In a large bowl, thoroughly combine dry ingredients and grated butter Fold in beer until just combined Pour into greased loaf pan Bake 1 hour Remove from pan and cool for 15 minutes While the bread is cooling, make some honey butter using approximately equal parts softened butter and your favorite honey.
I used König Ludwig Dunkel for a loaf a few years ago. Half bread flour, half rye flour, threw in some cheese, worked really well. I would recommend a Munich or Czech dark lager.
I'm contrarian I guess. I prefer a German lager, something as simple as Beck's or St.Pauli. I like the way it comes out in a bread.
