Cheesy Beer Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best beer to use for beer bread? ›

Lighter beers, such as lagers, ales and pilsners, will give your bread a lighter color, and mild taste that just about everyone loves. Darker beers like stouts and porters make a darker-colored loaf and have a stronger beer flavor. Hoppy beers like IPAs will give your bread a more bitter taste.

Bake the bread for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted about 1/2" into the top of the loaf comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs clinging to it.

Beer has yeast, but it doesn't always have enough to make the bread rise on its own. Craft brews sometimes leave the live yeast in (it forms a sort of sediment in the bottle), but mass-produced beers usually filter it out. If you relied on just the beer for rising, it might come out too dense.

Beer has rising agent in it already, but most store-bought beer will not have enough of it to make the bread rise; for this, most beer bread recipes include baking powder, which reacts with the beer to lets the bread rise and develop air pockets.

Can You Use Something Other Than Beer in Beer Bread? Absolutely! Almost any carbonated or noncarbonated beverage can be used, including water, soda pop, milk or buttermilk, fruit juice and even creamed corn! In general substitute 12 fluid ounces of whatever liquid you choose in place of beer.

Mixes in one bowl and makes a lovely rustic and flavorful bread. So far I've only used lighter beer (Blue Moon Belgian White specifically) but am definitely going to be experimenting more with other types of beer (especially Guinness), as well as herb combinations.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), baked or simmered dishes that contain alcohol will retain 40% of the original amount after 15 minutes of cooking, 35% after 30 minutes and 25% after an hour. But there's no point at which all of the alcohol disappears.

Unopened beer bread generally lasts up to a week past the sell-by date. Once opened, it's best to consume it within 2-3 days. If you've baked homemade beer bread, try to consume it within 2-3 days as well. If you choose to freeze it, beer bread can last from 2 to 3 months.

Think brisket, chicken, ribs, steaks, pork loin – all pair wonderfully with a slice of beer bread. When you're trying to keep it lighter, pair beer bread with your favorite salad. We highly recommend Caesar salad!

Add too much, and the yeast will turn quickly to fermentation without having made many new yeast cells. Since all those growing yeast cells release complex compounds like esters, the finished beer will have a less complex flavor and aroma.

Why is my beer bread so dense? ›

There could be couple of reasons why your beer bread turned out tough. Too much flour can cause the bread to be too dense and hard. Another reason could be that you stirred the batter too much.

I've had great results with leftover lager yeast. I include the slurry in the liquid portion of the bread. I put the liquid in a bowl of the flour and salt, stir only 1/3 of the flour in, cover, and let ferment 12 hours at 10C. In the morning I stir in and knead the rest of the flour, then rise at room temperature.

Some popular types of beer to use for beer bread include lagers, pilsners, wheat beers, and even stouts or porters. We typically use a light beer including Ultra, or a Bud Light.

If baked too soon or too late, loaves can collapse and have a dense, gummy center. “There are so many factors that affect rise time, so exact time will vary for every baker.

Your Bread Has Too Much Flour

Adding too much flour is one common mistake for beginning bakers. This produces dry bread with more crumbs. The key is to find a balance between the flour and liquid ingredients in your recipe. It can be tricky because bread recipes don't always give you an exact amount of flour.

If you're new to baking with beer, porters and stouts are the best place to begin. Because they're brewed with dark roasted malt, they lend flavor notes of cocoa and coffee. Porters lean more toward chocolate and malted flavors with less bitterness.

Most are fair game for beer batter (Pilsner Urquell, Stella Artois, Modelo, and Firestone Pivo Pils are particularly nice), with the exception of Bohemian pilsner, which comes with a heavy dose of spices that can change the overall flavor of your dish. In a beer batter, pilsner is one of the more low-key options.

It's also the phrase you'll find gracing each box of Trader Joe's Beer Bread Mix. The flavor of the finished loaf really depends on what kind of beer you use: Go with a lager for a lighter profile, an IPA for a hearty, hoppy taste, or a stout for a rich result with a slightly darker finished product.

Hefeweizen is a classic example of beer that is not especially high in alcohol, typically coming in between 4% and 6%, but it has perhaps the highest levels of yeast suspended in the beer. Hefes are known for their cloudy, hazy appearance and their nice thick head.