Cakes & Bakes: Bottle of beer bread

Sliced & buttered bottle of beer bread | H is for Home

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.

Bottle of beer with sourdough mixture

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!

Sourdough beer bread dough proving in a glass bowl Dough proving in a cane banneton

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

Freshly baked bottle of beer loaf

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

Sliced & buttered bottle of beer bread | H is for Home  #bread #realbread #beer #beerbread #sourdoughbread #sourdough #recipe #baking #cooking #cookery

Bottle of beer bread
Yields 1
Cook Time
30 min
Cook Time
30 min
Ingredients
  1. 330ml bottle of beer
  2. 115g/4oz starter @ 100% hydration
  3. 175g/6oz wholemeal flour
  4. 375g/13oz white flour
  5. 8g/¼oz saltBottle of beer bread ingredients
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Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the beer and the starter, getting rid of a lot of the fizz from the beer
  2. 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
  3. 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)
  4. 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
  5. 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)
  6. 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)
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before attempting to slice
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3 Reasons to try a beer subscription

3 Reasons to try a beer subscription | H is for Home

Clubs and associations are the easiest way to bring people with shared interests together. Many of these now operate online. Beer clubs are one such enterprise. People pay an individual subscription and receive a selection of craft beers each month.

Using Amazing Clubs beer club, we want to highlight the positive benefits of membership in this post. Here are three good reasons why you should consider joining a beer subscription service!

Pouring a bottle of beer into a glass

  1. Taste quality beers from home and overseas

Amazing Clubs beer club specialises in premium quality, hard to find beers. They offer the best beers brewed both locally, nationally and internationally – as selected by in house experts.

Most beer drinkers want to sample different beers. A chance to experience the various brewing methods and taste the subtle flavours incorporated. There’s so much variety and complexity on offer in the craft beer world. You now have the option of bringing these amazing beers straight to your door.

New and exciting craft brewers are springing up all the time; these may be a long way from home. Therefore, under normal circumstances, you might never even hear of them let alone taste their products. A beer club subscription will give you access to them.

Many of the gourmet selections offered through beer clubs are unavailable to the general public.

Two people clinking brown beer bottles

  1. Convenience & money saving

When you compare a beer club membership to heading out into bars and specialist stores there’s often money to be saved. In fact, Amazing Clubs beer club guarantees that you won’t find the products offered at a lower price elsewhere.

Busy bars aren’t for everyone either. More and more people are opting to have a drink whilst relaxing at home (and sometimes even the most gregarious of us just fancy a quiet night in). With beer clubs, you have the convenience of that option.

You pay a monthly subscription fee; and with this, the hassle of searching out interesting beer choices has been removed. They’ll arrive, securely packaged, right to your doorstep.

Row of a range of 4 different beers in glasses

  1. Beer clubs offer a wide array of services

Before joining any club, take time to know it and the quality of service that they deliver.

Most beer clubs ensure that their in-house experts taste and rate the beers before sending them your way. This is certainly the case with Amazing Clubs beer club.

Each month, you’ll receive an ever-changing selection of beers. From these you’ll be able to identify favourite brewers and brews. Amazing Clubs beer club guarantees that you won’t receive the same item twice.

Expert tasting notes will help you identify the aspects of beer flavour and type that you gravitate towards for future purchases. There may be online forums where you can chat with other beer lovers.

In addition, they offer gift services – a beer club subscription could be the perfect solution for that special present you’re searching for.

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Beer and cider booming in Britain

Beer and cider booming in Britain

On a hot summer’s day, you’ll see more people enjoying a pint of beer or cider than at any other time of year, and there’s been more than normal of those days this year. Then we had the England football team doing much better in this year’s World Cup than expected, and the two factors together have created a huge bonus for the beer and cider industries in the UK.

It seems these are the icing on the cake though, as Kantar Worldpanel reports that beer and cider sales had been enjoying an increase for some time, before both of these situations. In the year to 25 February 2018, the sales of beers and cider had risen by £191 million over the previous year, which equates to an increase of 6.3%.

The sales of ales are up by 7.7%, stout by 11.6% and lager by 5.1%. The biggest mover was craft beers though, which hit record sales of £135 million in the year to June. In comparison, the previous year reached £92 million, an increase of a massive 47%.

These increases are on sales as per money taken for them. There has been such a large increase in prices, as much as 57% on some drinks, that that affects the true picture. However, in the case of craft beers looking at the increase in volume instead that showed a 52% rise.

Rises like this have obvious benefits for the brewers, but there are advantages for other businesses too. For instance, the suppliers of brew software have seen a rise in demand for their products, as the busier the breweries get, the more they need software that will help to automate some of the tasks associated with brewing.

Bar with pints and a Global Beer Tour book

International flavour

International brewers have noticed various UK craft beer brands in recent years and there have been several company sales made. Meantime Brewery is a typical example being first of all sold to SAB Miller in 2015, and then became part of Asahi by AB InBev when they purchased SAB. London Fields Brewery was bought by Carlsberg in 2017, Camden Town Brewery by AB InBev in 2015 and in June of this year Heineken bought a stake in Beavertown.

Rises that might be more surprising are the ones in low or no alcohol beers. Kantar estimates that nearly one and a half million households bought low or no alcohol beers in the past year. This equates to an enormous increase if 57% over the previous year. It is said this is partly because all the major high street chains and supermarkets stock these, making them far easier to access than they used to be.

Brewers are enjoying increased trade on most of their products and this is helping the industry to get back on its feet. Some find these results very surprising because of the numbers of pubs that have closed and not been replaced. Beers and ciders are on sale in a lot more places now though, from your local corner shop to the largest of supermarkets, and this fact is one of the reasons the increase has been so noticeable.

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Price Points: Grown-up Advent calendars

Selection of grown-up Advent calendars | H is for Home

There aren’t any children in our household, however that doesn’t stop us getting excited about Christmas. Christmas proper for us generally begins on Advent – this year, the 3rd of December. On that day, the tree gets erected, decorations go up and, if we’ve managed a bit of forward planning, the first door of the Advent calendar gets opened.

There’s a growing number of grown-up Advent calendars on the market – and there’s something for everyone – glamour pusses, real ale drinkers, coffee connoisseurs as well as the sweet-toothed. Here are three of our favourites…

  1. Christmas coffee advent by Perkulatte: £40, Notonthehighstreet
  2. Beer advent calendar: £74.99, The Pip Stop
  3. 24-day beauty advent calendar: £120.00, Selfridges