Noob - Homebrewer/Artisan Bread Maker

Hey all!

I am a noob to this forum - just found it. I have been brewing beer for a long time. I have just recently become interested in artisan bread baking. Here are some photos of my recent experiments/projects.

A batard -

A bread I made from the spent grain and leftover wort from a pale ale I brewed -

Here is a ciabatta I made the other day (loaf pic and crumb pic) -

So far, I am really enjoying this board. I have learned a lot from lurking here, and I hope to learn more from participating actively.

Great bread. What kind of flour did you use in your ciabatta? It looks so creamy. weavershouse

I used King Arthur unbleached white flour. I find that it works very well.

and beautiful looking breads...

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Regards from southern mexico

Caskdrainer,

I am also a homebrewer and a bread baker, but I came at it the other way, starting with bread. I am very interested in your experience baking with spent grains. I haven't tried it yet, primarily because of the husks in there, and the laxative side effects I have heard they can have. I have thought about trying to remove the husks before adding the grains to the dough, but haven't gotten very far yet. What has your experience been?

Tim

The first loaf I made with my spent grain suffered from all the problems you mentioned in your post. I simply took grains from my mashtun and mixed up a bread with them. It was not good.

For the loaf you see pictured above, I took that grain straight from the mash tun but put it into a food processor and really chopoped it up good - to a sort of pasty consistency. Then, I used this in my bread (along with bread flour - about 1/3 spent grains and 2/3 flour). I also used some leftover wort for the liquid in the recipe. It was pretty tasty and very hearty bread.

I'm also a homebrewer, it cool to see more people who do both bake bread and brew beer. yeast is a pretty cool thing. Have you developed any "rules of thumb" for adding spent grains to bread. I assume you they don't soak up water, being that you said you take them straight from the mash tun. So maybe you hold back a little water from the bread recipe when? I'm just wondering what your experience has been.

demegrad

http://www.demegrad.blogspot.com