Bread Beer

[Charlotte 0'Neil]

I started making a bread beer today. I made one before and it was passably drinkable, as I recall, but at the time I was too inundated with all my other experimental beers to follow through on it.

The Egyptians paid the pyramid workers with bread, and they made ale with the leftover bread.

I put 2 slices of bread in a jar and covered them with a pint of warm water, then covered and let to set overnight. In the morning I put the soggy bread and water into the blender and blended on high until it was smooth.

Divided this between 2 2-liter plastic soda pop bottles, and added to them: 2 teaspoons malt extract (what was left in the jar after I had used it to make another ale), 1/8 tsp of citric acid (I prefer cream of tartar, but I'm out at the moment), 200 mls of invert sugar and water syrup (see sugar), a pint of starter (a cup of clear liquid from the millet ale I bottled yesterday, plus the top cup of the sediment from the millet ale) and a quart of warm water.

I covered the two bottles with an airlock and set them next to the slow cooker under tablecloth that is the warm spot of choice that I keep my fermenting brews. Fermentation began immediately.

The bread is a thick homemade bread that includes several kinds of whole grain flour, along with a little bit of sour milk and yogurt that I add to it. I'll have to see how the beer turns out with this small amount of milk protein in it.