Seeking a tired, tested and true...wine for hydration formula.

Profile picture for user The Roadside Pie King

Formula for a hearth inclusion Bread featuring Chianti and asiago cheese. Any ideas are appreciated. 

Kind regards,

Will F.

(Photo for attention)

Not sure what you're asking. Percentage of wine in the liquids?  

I hope you are doing well. Did did some research. I will be e using a standard white flour hearth Bread formula. I will boil the alcohol off of the wine. Then use it as if plain water.

Thanks for your reply.

Will F.

 

Seems like a waste of wine to me unless the bottle's been open a while or gone flat.  is this a flavour search?

Oh,  I'm fine thanks.  Getting better.  

From my research lightly boiling to eliminate the alcohol which is detrimental to wild yeast, will still add a mild wine flavor. California chianti is not going to be pricey. 

 Time to mix up another batch of everyday bread too. I am finally close to being back to 100%. I think I will make a pie to celebrate!

Italian sausage with brown mustard on whole wheat bread, deconstructed.

It's surprisingly difficult to get rid of alcohol by boiling; I think it takes about 2 hours boiling to get down to 5% alcohol and you can't get much lower than that.

Good to hear from you again Mini! Are you baking these days?

 

Lance

I don't even remember where I was reading. It may have been an old post right here. A reply stated he boiled so long he needed more wine for the formula. The OP stated it only took a few minutes at boil to remove the alcohol. Fast forward to present day. How detrimental to wild yeast is alcohol? I am planning to use wine in place of all the water. 

I am looking at a Chianti, Asiago cheese, and, kalamata olive. 

I almost missed this reply. I switched to Gmail and still hit or miss with notifications. Hmm.

Anyway back to brass tacks. That was the post my wine bread search found. 

 I re-read the reply. The OP used an interesting technique to remove the alcohol. As soon as the wine came to a boil he put a flame to it, burning off the wine. Does that sound feasible? I may do a test tomorrow. Thanks Lance.

Will F.

 

The plan is to use an AP flour formula and substitute wine for water. My preference are lower hydration formulas. Thinking out loud, I may go with Hamelmans Vermont sourdough formula. @69-70% hydration. That being said, I am thinking to use water in the two stage levein build.

Different yeasts have different alcohol tolerance. Wine and beer yeasts have been bred for making alcohol and each variety will have it's own alcohol tolerance. 

When dealing with wild yeast you're in unknown territory. They won't have as high an alcohol tolerance and you won't know what the tolerance will be. 

Bread yeast is bred for it's ability to produce CO2. It'll still make alcohol, it won't be as high as wine yeast but it'll be more than wild yeast. 

Wine yeasts can have a tolerance for 12-18% ABV before they cap out. Depending on variety. 

Bread yeast is a bit more uncertain but 10-12% is a good average. 

Wild yeast is even more uncertain so 8-10% is an educated guess but playing it safe at 6-8% might be better if using a wild ferment. 

So it really depends on your yeast and formula. 

If you keep it under 5% of the total formula (and don't forget that 5% won't be all alcohol as the alcohol itself will have a % ABV, you aren't adding pure alcohol), and preferment a large percentage of the final dough before adding in the alcohol, you should be fine.