Beer sludge = bread when? A&S Challenge #12!

Sourdough fascinates me.  The concept of something that looks so... well... non-appetizing turning out bread that's delicious intrigues me to no end!

My lord brewed ale a week or so ago.  (See A&S challenge 11 for the start of this project!)  At the end of his bottling process, I asked him to save me the sludge that was left, and I made a starter out of it.  I took the sludge, about a cup or a cup and a half, added some flour and water, covered it and let it sit on a shelf in my kitchen.  I fed the little monster for about a week, stirring, adding more flour and water, a little at a time, and yesterday there was enough to do something with it.  I've never successfully made sourdough before, so I asked my 19 yr old daughter, who has been in the kitchen with somebody who's made it, to be my guide.  (I love learning FROM my kids.  So cool!)  She graciously agreed.  (Thanks, Faythe!)  So, we fed it a cup of water, a cup of flour, and a smidge of sugar, and let it sit over night.  This morning, we found bubbly goo.



This is the leftover starter, plus more flour and water to keep it going!



 Two cups of the bubbly goo (also known as "a sponge", but what's the fun in that?) went into my favourite mixing bowl, to which I also added some olive oil, salt, and about a cup and a half of flour.  I mixed it up, and was delighted by the level of gluten development already well under way.  Very gloopy!  (That's the technical term!)  My hopes were up. ;)



You can't see it, but there's a whole lotta spring in this already!

  I started mixing the flour in, about a half cup at a time, until it was fairly stiff, at which point I turned the whole batch out onto my floured pastry cloth (this was its maiden project!) and kneaded in more flour until it had the classic "this feels like a finished ball of dough should feel" spring.  I will say this batch of dough smelled like BEER!  A lot.  I am not a beer drinker, at all, and this beer is especially hoppy, at that.  All I could hope for was that the baking process would mellow that out!



My little ball of dough.  Awwwww....(hic!)

 Faythe informed me that we now had to let the dough rest for several HOURS.  Normally, my bread rises no more than two hours, and that's when the kitchen is particularly cold.  Ideally, she told me it should be left to rise all day (!!!!) but we had dinner to eat at a decent hour.  So, this dough rose for about four hours before being punched down, and it had just barely doubled in size.  (I will not question her sourdough wisdom again!)  So, doughs were formed, and I let them rise about another hour and a half, then slashed them and stuck them into the oven to bake. 

The beer smell never really left.  All that consoled me was the other foods cooking which helped tone down the beer aroma in the kitchen.   The sourdough took a little longer to bake than regular loaves, and I was concerned that the crust would be too hard, so the last half hour, I brushed melted butter on the crust about every 10 minutes, and again when it came out of the oven.  I also lightly sprinkled a little kosher salt on top of the loaves and then let them cool.



The loaves, about 10 minutes before they were finally done.

 The bread has a very noticeable beer smell and flavour that was not diminished in any way that I could tell by baking.  I really don't like beer, but my lord does (obviously.... since he made the stuff that yielded the sludge this whole process started with to begin with!), and he and some of our friends enjoyed the bread quite a bit.  The crumb was a lot lighter than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise.

I am hopeful that as the starter ages and picks up wild yeastie beasties from the kitchen, and as the beer sludge gets diluted in the next few batches to a minimal amount of the liquid in the starter, the flavour will mellow.  Even though I personally don't care for the flavour of this bread, I am thrilled beyond measure that the experiment was a success.  We had eight people at dinner, and one whole loaf disappeared handily!

Inside the Beery Sourdough Loaf