Beer Using Sourdough Starter

You wont know if ya don't go!

 

I like your thinking. Are you making beer the modern way, and then adding the bread yeast? Reminds me of my first attempt to make alcohol when I was a kid who decided to put grocery store-bought bread yeast in juice. Something definitely happened because it tasted terrible after bubbling!
I say go for it using your adult expertise.

 

Hey Jack, good to see you around here. I have one of your mills (circa 2009(?)), still going strong, but motorized these days.

 

As Yatte Minahare said about the founding of Yamazaki Distillery, "Go for it! You won't know unless you try."

 

I am not a homebrew and really have no business chiming in here if not for my beloved sourdough starter.

I will share that I have occasionally tried brewing kvass using my starter, and it worked wonderfully. I have no idea if your starter would work well enough on its own, or need some extra help. Sounds like a fun project.

 

Please report how this turned out.

 

The house yeast that Scratch uses is said to have originated from a sourdough starter.

Unless you know exactly what’s in your sourdough starter there’s no way to actually know if it will fully ferment the complex sugars from malt.

There’s a good chance that the bacteria that’s actually souring the dough is very hop intolerant so if you do want something that’s a bit tart I’d suggest keeping the IBUs pretty low to begin with. Like 15 or lower. Might be a good idea to add some complexity as the yeast in the starter is most likely not going to make a very “clean” beer.

I’d also suggest starting with a “grain bill” that includes a decent amount of simple sugars. If the “yeast” in your sourdough starter consists of a yeast that struggles with the complex sugars from malt you’re much more likely to get better attenuation with a larger portion of simple sugar (dextrose, glucose).

 

I never thought about using it for beer.