Beer Bread Recipe

Don’t you agree that a slice of home baked warm crusty bread is just one of the most wonderful things in life? Restaurants know what they’re doing when they bring a warm basket of bread to the table before you even order. They know that first impressions are the most lasting and customers will come back again and again for that bread.

Perhaps you’ve heard of beer bread or even bought a beer bread kit. Beer bread is rich, slightly sweet, super moist, and flavorful. It has a rustic crunchy crust and a hearty texture. It’s sort of amazing and very easy to make.

Beer bread is similar to Irish soda bread; both breads are made without yeast. Beer bread and hearty beef stew (or make Instant Pot beef stew or crockpot beef stew) are a perfect match.

About Homemade Beer Bread

A quick bread. Beer bread is made without yeast and doesn’t require time to rise, which is why is called a quick bread. It tastes yeasty because beer contains yeast but, like other quick breads, baking powder is the agent that causes the bread to rise. Making beer bread is somewhat similar to Irish soda bread, another popular quick-rise recipe.

Cheaper than store-bought. Beer bread mixes can be a little pricey. I checked on Amazon and a 19 oz. package (to make one loaf) was more than ten dollars! And you still had to add your own beer and butter. (At my local grocer, the price was more reasonable.

Simple ingredients. The good news is that you absolutely don’t need a kit to make this beer bread recipe. You may already have everything you need to make beer bread: all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, honey, butter, and beer. You don’t even have to use beer if you don’t want to.

Not fussy about what kind of beer you use. When we tested the recipe, we wanted to make sure our beer bread recipe worked with variations. We found it to be pretty forgiving. You can use light beer, dark beer, cheap beer, or craft beer. We even skipped the beer and found that the bread turned out fine with soda water (unflavored carbonated water). The only beer that we didn’t care for was beer with high IBU, such as IPAs, because of the bitter flavor it gave the bread.

Lots of variations. There are other variations you can make, too. You can bake the bread in a round casserole dish or muffin tins. You can add cheese, herbs, or dried fruit. You can skip the honey and use sugar instead.

Ingredient Notes

• All-Purpose Flour: You don’t need bread flour for this easy recipe, just regular flour. I usually choose unbleached flour rather than bleached flour. Unbleached flour is treated with fewer chemicals; it has a slightly coarser texture and darker color. Although some bakers prefer bleached flour for pastries and cookies because it’s softer, I’ve found that the difference is indiscernible and I’d rather use flour that is less processed.
• Baking Powder: This recipe is a quick bread, since it’s made with baking powder, not yeast. It doesn’t require time to rise and ferment. However, beer contains yeast, so I guess technically you could call it a yeast bread.
• Salt: Bread without salt is very flat-tasting.
• Beer: There are many, many different kinds of beer. Take a look at the note below for more about which beer works well for beer bread. For best results, the beer should be at room temperature.

• Honey: Sometimes honey gets thick or crystallized. If that describes your honey, warm it up briefly in the microwave so it will blend into the batter more easily. You can substitute sugar, if you don’t happen to have honey in the house.
• Butter: Although normally I recommend unsalted butter for baking, I like to use salted butter for this bread. The extra saltiness really enhances the flavor of the bread.

How To Make Beer Bread

Preheat the oven. The oven needs to be fully preheated before you put the bread in to bake. Since this bread is so easy to stir up, you may be ready to bake it before the oven is hot!

Prep the pan. Choose the pan you’re going to use. A generous coating of butter will give you an amazing crust all the way around. However, go ahead and spray the pan with nonstick spray, if you’d rather not get your hands greasy.

Mix dry ingredients. You’ll need a large mixing bowl. Use a spoon to lightly scoop the flour out of the storage container into a dry measuring cup. If you use the measuring cup to scoop out the flour, the flour will be too compacted and you’ll end up with too much flour in your bread.

Level the measuring cup off with a straight edge, such as the flat side of a table knife. Don’t shake the flour down to level it off because again, that will cause it to compact. Put the flour in the mixing bowl and add the salt and baking powder. Whisk the dry ingredients together.

Melt the butter (and honey). Melt the butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan. If your honey seems to be really thick or crystallized, heat that up too. It should be very liquid.

Combine. Add the beer, half the butter (save the other half to pour over the top of the bread batter), and the honey to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Stir the batter together just until the flour is incorporated. The beer will foam up.

That’s normal, just stir it in but don’t over stir the batter. You should still see some bubbles.

Put the batter into the pan. Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and smooth the top.

Top with butter. Pour the rest of the melted butter over the top of the batter.

Bake. The bread needs about fifty minutes to bake. It should be dry and golden brown on top. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick in the center of the loaf. It should come out clean or with a few crumbs, but not sticky batter.

You may notice that your bread does not have a smooth crust on top. Beer bread is more rustic in style, with a shaggy top. It’s always interesting to see how it’s going to look and that’s part of the appeal.

Cool. Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool in the pan for ten minutes or so. Remove it from the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely. It slices best when it’s cool but you can certainly serve it warm, if you prefer.

Enjoy your bread spread with softened butter and/or honey. Sometimes I serve it with homemade strawberry freezer jam. Beer bread goes great with homemade soup. Try one of my 12 easy crockpot soup recipes.

FAQs

Recipe Variations

There are a lot of ways to make this beer bread recipe your own! Try these ideas:

• Try different beers. There are plenty of beer options and each will impart a different flavor to the bread. Have fun experimenting!
• Make the bread without beer. Use soda water instead. You may like my Irish soda bread. It’s also a quick bread, similar to beer bread but without the beer.
• Add-ins: Add shredded cheese, herbs, or dried fruit to the batter.
• Make muffins or a round loaf. Bake the bread in muffin tins or a round casserole dish.

Storage Tips

Cool the bread completely before storing it in an airtight container. It will keep on the counter for a couple of day. Remember, your homemade bread does not contain preservatives like store bought bread. For longer storage, keep it in the refrigerator or freeze for up to 3 months.

To refresh the leftover bread, toast it lightly.