Gutpunch
Active Member
I guess this is yet another variation on a common theme, but I wanted to try it for myself. After bottling a batch of belgian tripel recently, I decided to try making a bare-bones bread using just the slurry from the secondary instead of separate yeast and water. I was curious how the beer yeast would react to the sudden change in environment and diet, and I had no idea how the alcohol and beeriness might affect gluten development, or the flour starch-to-sugar conversion. So I gave it a shot.
500g flour
375g slurry (T-58 yeast, 1.005 FG, 8.4% ABV, 29.8 IBU)
10g kosher salt
I got about 650g of slurry from the bottom of the carboy, so I let it sit a couple hours to settle the heavy stuff, poured off the thin top, and then poured my 375g from the creamy center. I mixed that with the 500g flour and let it sit another 45 minutes before mixing in the salt.
After the salt, I ended up letting it rise about 6-7 hours, stretching and folding maybe three times, before it gained the rising strength I wanted. I shaped it into a boule and let it finish its final rise in the fridge for about 24 hours. Finally, I baked at 450F for about 35 minutes (with a pan of water on the oven floor for the first 10 min).
I was probably most apprehensive about what might happen to the texture, but it turned out great and had a nice chewy sponginess with a crusty crust, and the flour's natural sweetness developed well. Only two things really struck me as out of the ordinary compared to my regular breads. There's a subtle, earthy bitterness up front, odd but not unpleasant, and the T-58's peppery afterglow lingers a bit, but it's tasty overall. Kind of interesting how some of the T-58's distinct characteristics read.
I like it enough that I might make it a regular occurrence to see how different worts behave in bread. Has anybody else tried something like this?
500g flour
375g slurry (T-58 yeast, 1.005 FG, 8.4% ABV, 29.8 IBU)
10g kosher salt
I got about 650g of slurry from the bottom of the carboy, so I let it sit a couple hours to settle the heavy stuff, poured off the thin top, and then poured my 375g from the creamy center. I mixed that with the 500g flour and let it sit another 45 minutes before mixing in the salt.
After the salt, I ended up letting it rise about 6-7 hours, stretching and folding maybe three times, before it gained the rising strength I wanted. I shaped it into a boule and let it finish its final rise in the fridge for about 24 hours. Finally, I baked at 450F for about 35 minutes (with a pan of water on the oven floor for the first 10 min).
I was probably most apprehensive about what might happen to the texture, but it turned out great and had a nice chewy sponginess with a crusty crust, and the flour's natural sweetness developed well. Only two things really struck me as out of the ordinary compared to my regular breads. There's a subtle, earthy bitterness up front, odd but not unpleasant, and the T-58's peppery afterglow lingers a bit, but it's tasty overall. Kind of interesting how some of the T-58's distinct characteristics read.
I like it enough that I might make it a regular occurrence to see how different worts behave in bread. Has anybody else tried something like this?
