A friend of ours has a micro-bar that sells an ever-changing selection of beers produced by micro-breweries all over the world. Doesn’t everyone want a friend like that?
Anyhow, we looked after their dog for them on occasion, and they thanked us with a few different bottles of beer. One of the bottles, a Buxton Brewery IPA, didn’t get drunk for ages, so I decided to use it to make a bottle of beer bread loaf.
I used my usual liquid to starter to flour ratio, but I felt the resultant dough was a little too wet, so I’ve upped the flour content by 50 grams in my recipe below. Perhaps I needed to weigh how much 330cl of beer weighs compared to 330cl of water!
The time this loaf takes to prepare can vary widely depending on the temperature of your kitchen (ours rarely gets above 15ºC… in the summer), and whether you refrigerate your dough whilst it bulk ferments. Sometimes, if it’s really cold, I shut the covered dough in the microwave (pre-warmed by leaving a mug of boiling water in there).
It is helpful to know when estimating rising time according to room temperature that the rate of fermentation, or rising, is about double for every 15°F [8°C] increase in temperature. The Bread Bible
The resultant loaf was hoppy, tangy and flavoursome. It was delicious with a bit of mature cheddar or just with butter and gorgeous a few days later toasted.
Click here or on the image below to save my bottle of beer bread recipe to Pinterest


- 330ml bottle of beer
- 115g/4oz starter @ 100% hydration
- 175g/6oz wholemeal flour
- 375g/13oz white flour
- 8g/¼oz salt
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the beer and the starter, getting rid of a lot of the fizz from the beer
- Mix in the flours and salt, then turn out on to a work surface (I like to use a large marble board as it's very non-stick) and knead for 5 minutes
- Form the dough into a ball, put it back into the mixing bowl, cover and leave to prove until double in size (the warmer your kitchen, the quicker this will happen)
- Scrape the dough out of the bowl back on to the work surface, fold and shape the dough into a round and place it in a well-floured, circular banneton (smooth-side down). Prove again until double in size
- Preheat the oven to 250ºC/475ºF/Gas mark 9 (put your cloche or stone [if using] in the oven to preheat as well, at this point)
- Once the oven has reached the correct temperature, carefully remove the dough from the banneton, score and bake for 30 minutes (you can take the lid off the cloche for the final 10 minutes to get a lovely brown crust)
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before attempting to slice