Contents
A proven method of making beer from black bread (crackers) at home without special equipment. In addition to the ingredients themselves, you only need pots, jars, bottles and a kitchen sieve (gauze). The result is a natural drink, slightly reminiscent of the legendary English Guinness.
Attention! The proposed recipe only imitates the taste, but is not beer from a technological point of view. This is a simplified version that does not require many hours of wort brewing and compliance with temperature pauses (saccharification) of malt.
Ingredients:
- water – 5 liters;
- black bread (rye) – 1 kg;
- hop cones – 30 grams;
- sugar – 300-350 grams;
- yeast – 5 grams of dry (20 grams pressed) bakery or beer per 5 liters of wort;
- rye fermented malt – 150 grams (optional).
Theory
Any black rye or rye-custard bread without additives and fragrances is suitable: “Classic”, “Belarusian”, “Riga”, “Ukrainian” or “Lithuanian”. The simpler the composition, the better.
Dried hop cones are sold in pharmacies and brewing shops. To make the beer moderately bitter, it is advisable to take hops with an alpha acidity of 4,5-5%. There is no information on the content of alpha acids on medicinal products; only hops intended for brewing are labeled. This is the main reason why pharmacy hops are rarely used to make beer – it is difficult to predict future bitterness.
The strength of bread beer is formed due to the fermentation of sugar – 1% of sugar fermented in the wort gives 0,6% alcohol. According to the proportions in the recipe, the approximate strength of the finished drink will be 4%. You can adjust the alcohol content at your discretion by changing the amount of added sugar. However, remember that beer is stronger than 6-8% for an amateur, and below 2% – more like kvass.
It is advisable to use top-fermenting brewer’s yeast (add according to the instructions for 5 liters of wort). If no such strain is available, regular dry or pressed bakery strains will do, but a slight alcohol smell may appear.
Fermented rye malt (the main purpose is to make fragrant bread) adds a slight malty note to the beer, but this ingredient can be dispensed with without significantly losing taste.
Black bread beer recipe
1. Put the hop cones in a saucepan, pour 1,3 liters of water, boil over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring every 5-6 minutes, then cool to room temperature. Through boiling, the hops release most of the aromas and flavors to the water.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cut the bread into thin slices 3-4 cm wide, evenly distribute the slices on a dry baking sheet and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes to get crackers.
The stronger the roasting of the bread, the darker the beer will be, but it is important not to allow the crackers to burn, otherwise the bitterness will be too noticeable.
3. Transfer the crackers to a 5 liter saucepan, add fermented rye malt (optional) and 100 grams of sugar. Pour in cold hop broth (along with cones).
4. Activate the yeast according to the instructions on the label: in most cases, dilute in 200 ml of warm water (temperature up to 30°C) with a teaspoon of sugar and wait until a light foam appears on the surface.
5. Add activated yeast to the pan with breadcrumbs.
6. Stir until a homogeneous mass is obtained. Cover the pan with a lid, leave for 24 hours in a dark place with a temperature of 20-28°C.
7. After a day, add 200 grams of sugar to the beer wort and pour 2,5 liters of water. Mix.
8. Pour the wort into a fermentation container, bandage the neck with gauze and leave for 3 days in a dark room at room temperature. Stir every 2 hours for the first 12 days.
9. Strain the wort through a kitchen sieve or cheesecloth. Close the liquid part hermetically.
10. Pour the remaining thick with 1 liter of boiling water, mix, cover, let it brew for 30 minutes, then strain. Thanks to steaming from bread and hops, it is possible to extract all the necessary substances.
11. Bring the liquid part of the steamed thick to a boil, boil for 5 minutes, remove from the stove, cool to room temperature and strain through cheesecloth.
12. Mix the cold infusion with the fermented and filtered wort obtained in step 9.
Bread beer is ready, but will be still or lightly carbonated. If this option suits you, you can immediately bottle the drink and proceed to the 15th stage of preparation.
13. For carbonization (saturation with carbon dioxide), add 50 grams of sugar to the wort and mix until completely dissolved.
14. Pour bread beer into glass or plastic (preferably) bottles, leaving at least 4-5 cm of free space to the neck. Close tightly, leave for 5-6 hours in a dark place at a temperature of 20-28 °C.
Adding a small amount of sugar will cause a slight re-fermentation, which will saturate the beer with carbon dioxide, making it carbonated.
15. Transfer the bread beer to the refrigerator. Leave for 15 days to age and improve the taste.
For the first 5 days, check the pressure in the bottles and, if necessary, bleed off excess gas to prevent bursting.
Shelf life in the refrigerator is up to 6 months, an open bottle should be drunk in 1-2 days. Fortress – 3-5%.
Another beer recipe from Borodino black bread is presented in the video.
