First, there was beer, then bread. At least that seems to be a fact from Anthropologists and Historians. Human stopped hunting and gathering to grow grains. Barley for that matter. And they actually didn’t figure out how to turn grains into a dough (and into bread) until much later. No, they brewed beer instead. Who would have tried something else?
Beer existed before bread, wine, cider, spirit and coffee.
"Beer is somehow the only drink produced from grains (if we exclude grain spirits which are then distilled from beer)."
(I'm just quoting myself)
The Keptinis (Raw Ale and bread beers)
Lithuania is home to some of the oldest living brewing tradition.
The Keptinis are brewed as a very thick mash 1:1 grain to water. After a long rest at 68 C, this mash is cooked like a bread in an oven. The sugars and proteins undergo the Maillard reactions to create a whole lotta flavor along with some proper caramelization. The breads are then brewed again, around 85 C to dissolve all this goodness and after filtration this “raw ale” is fermented. An incredible and traditional crossover between baking and brewing!
The Kvass (stale bread beer)
Kvass is another of these ancient “bread beers”. This one remains a classic in central Europe where it’s available in bulk in street markets. Kvass is a beer brewed from stale bread. It definitely needs a bit of malt to find some enzymatic power and sourdough to digest all this starch into sugar but overall, this bread is exactly the grainy starch we need to brew beer. Kvass is processed very simply and tend to stay on the low abv side with some nearly systematic wild yeasts and lactic bacteria’s. It makes up for a cheap and tasty refreshment! The kind of beer equivalent to the Japanese rice Amazake…
While most of the bread left-over is going to foodbanks (or at least it should) some brewers are producing kvass as a circular economy effort, often offering their profit to charity funds. Like Toast.
About the Yeast
Yes you can ferment beer with bread yeast. They are both close Saccharomyces friends. Expect a very fast fermentation with a Weissener style character (clove and banana). It might be a struggle to keep them working for long enough though and reach attenuation. Sahti beer style from Scandinavia, is often fermented with baking yeast!
The other way round is true too. You can bake bread with brewer’s yeast. It will be very slow and often more bitter.
My take…? there’s a reason why brewers use brewers’ yeast and bakers use baker’s yeast.
Bread and Beer Pairing
Pairing beer with food doesn’t always need to be sophisticated. One of my favorite moments, even in high end restaurant, is the boutique bread and butter at the very beginning. Simple perfections.
In my home country (Belgium), baking is an art. There are proper bakeries in every small town. Each will bake everyday 15-30 different types of bread, crafted with Wheat, Rye, Oat, Sorghum, Corn, Buckwheat,…. Proofing with classic yeast and sourdough and working out different shapes to elaborate different crust characteristics. That builds such a world of flavors offering so many complementarities with beers. Beer is liquid bread right ?
Also, it’s definitely simple to set up (it’s like beer and chocolate or beer and cheese…. You just put them on a plate!)
Let’s visit 4 typical examples :
Wheat bread or a Crusty baguette
Very much the starting point, bready, doughy, slightly sweet, toasted.
Pairs beautifully with a Kolsch, a Pilsner. All about the grains coming out intensely, definitely giving a different perspective to pure malt lagers.
Brown, whole grain bread
Grainy, toasted, bitter.
Here is a beautiful complementarity for a brown ale. An English style will add more of the cooked fruits, jam-y, marmalade impression along with some beautiful buttery notes, exactly what your bread is asking for, while a Belgian dubble will be more about wrapping up the bread with a caramel, roasted, toasted mellow signature.
Sourdough or German black rye bread
Sour, spicy, peppery, funky.
Try a Gueuze lambic, a Farmhouse, a Saison. The overall acidity seems to mellow leaving plenty of space for the spices and the grains to blend. The yeast fruity character also is amplified very nicely.
Brioche
Slightly sweet, round, very doughy with buttery notes.
Take a Belgian blond abbey beer. Some fruits seem to come from nowhere, the sweetness echoes nicely, the vanilla aroma’s produced from the yeast just make it all come together.
