Basic Beer Bread (no yeast required!)

Social distancing, self-isolation, quarantine, staying at home.. Whatever you prefer to call it, it can take quite a toll. So before we go into the content of this post, we just want to know – how are you doing? No, seriously, how are you doing? While this is such a commonplace question, and people generally just answer with “good” or “fine” or “all right,” we here at Bear & Bug Eats genuinely care about all of you, and want to hear your true, sincere, heartfelt answer. Shoot us an email or send us a message on social media, we’d love to hear from you!

How are we doing? Truth be told, there are good days, and there are not-so-good days. We are embracing the happy family memories we are forming on the good days, and we make an effort to be intentional in seeking comfort, reassurance, and guidance on those not-so-good days. And we try to fill our time with things that make us happy.

Something that, at least for a little while, always makes things better for me is homemade carbs. Now, I always despised the thought of baking have never been much of one for baking, as I don’t have much patience for the requisite precision; instead, I generally leave making any baked goods to Katie, as she is better at the whole being precise thing. However, sometime last year, I decided that, whether I like it or not, I really need to at least work on developing an understanding of baking, and so in I dove gently dipped my toes. 

One of my favorite baked goods from growing up was a good old loaf of beer bread. Traditionally during Easter time, there would always be a loaf of beer bread (made with Guinness) and a loaf of Irish soda bread around, courtesy of my Bostonian Irish Catholic roots. Banking on these wonderful memories, it seemed only appropriate that a beer bread be the first thing I work on truly perfecting. 

But then I found myself faced with a serious dilemma – what kind of beer would be optimal to use? What kind of flavor palate am I intending for my beer bread to have? Do I want it to be darker or lighter? Do I… Yeah, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole there. So how did I settle on one beer? 

Easy – I didn’t. I did the next best thing. I opened up our fridge, saw a plethora of saved-up beers sitting on the back of a shelf, and decided to spend the next few months trying as many of them as I could, and oh darn, that meant lots of fresh bread around.

So what beers did I try using for making this bread? *deep breath* Here’s my list –

• Samuel Adams Boston Lager
• Fat Tire Belgian White
• Fat Tire Amber Ale
• Corona (yes, I had to… more on this to come)
• Elysian Brewing Space Dust IPA
• Motorworks Brewing Midnight Espresso

Ultimately, I settled on the Belgian White from Fat Tire, as, to me, it seems to just enhance the delicious flavor and aroma of fresh-baked bread without adding anything that could potentially detract.

Now that we’ve decided on a beer, where do we go? The remainder of this recipe is super easy. The only other ingredients you’re gonna need are flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and butter.

How easy is it to make it? So easy even a monkey somebody who generally dislikes baking can do it without much trouble. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly add the beer, pour the batter/dough into a greased loaf pan, pour some melted butter on top, and bake it in an oven for an hour. 

Once it’s done, cut a nice thick slice, spread some delicious butter on said slice, and enjoy!

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Looking for more bread? Try “Katie Bread,” a perfect basic sandwich bread. Or for another yeast-free recipe with a sweet twist, try Chocolate Chip Soda Bread with Salted Honey Butter!

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