I'm about to attempt bread making using beer yeast, seeing how I'm locked in quarantine and I'm about ready to climb the walls.
I'm planning to do the no-knead method that uses a 12-24 hour rest and would ordinarily use 1/4 tsp of dry yeast. No actual bread yeast availabe to me due to the crazy hoarders. However, I have yeast slurry in the fridge and a starter on the go for an upcoming brew.
Any suggestions on what I should do here? Slurry or starter liquid, and how much would be required? I'm thinking not much, considering the long rest period, but I really have no idea as I've never attempted this. Also, do a flour "starter" or just dump in the main batch and wait 24 hours?
Appreciate your advice..
I’m not sure if this will be of any help as I was in your position last week , desperately googling to try and find out how to use the stuff from beer to make bread , quantities, timings etc... which is how I found this site!
I have no clue about beer making (I’m more of a bread maker) but my husband did a courage beer kit and I grabbed hold of (what I now know is called) the trub. I looked at some you tube videos and used boiled cooled water to flush it out of the large tub he used (for the first stage) and into a jug , left it settle for 15-30 mins until the yeast was settling at the bottom then poured off as much watery beer as I could and repeated . Then I put it in the fridge overnight and the yeast was very pale and more cake like so it was easy to pour the remaining liquid off the top. I had no idea how active it was at this point. I had read that people made a sponge with the yeast and flour ( as I do with my sourdough starter) the night before and give it 12 hours etc. It was morning, so I thought I would use 60g of the ‘yeast cake/sludge’ and add it to 60g flour and 60g luke warm water and I could keep an eye on it to judge how active it was. In under an hour it was bubbling away madly, ready to go! So I added the rest of my bread ingredients there and then and popped it in the electric mixer to knead. Then proof. It only took an hour to double in size ... About the same speed as dried yeast ! I knocked it back slightly then 30 -45 mins in loaf tins then I baked. They were lovely . they were seeded whole meal loaves and they worked really well. soft crumb , delicious.
The following day I tried half the quantities (30g of each) to make our usual white sandwich loaf. It was more dense, very edible but I preferred the seeded . I often use the Jim Lahey no knead overnight 1/4tsp yeast recipe . I will be interested to hear how it goes for you but would suggest you may not need as much yeast as I used and maybe pop it in the fridge to slow it down !
My husband has just completed the 2nd fermentation (?? Not sure if that’s what it’s called... moved it from the big barrel into bottles) so there is more yeast for me to try. It will be interesting to see if this responds the same way!
Hope you’ve managed to stay awake !! Apologies for the length!!