Name: Easy Beer Bread - Recipe for Beer Lovers
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 3 Cups Flour ((all-purpose flour) - This recipe does not use self-rising flour); 4 Tablespoons White Granulated Sugar; 1 Teaspoon Salt; 3 Teaspoons Baking Powder ((aluminum free)); 1 Egg; 8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter; 12 Ounces Beer ((use your favorite beer with a distinctive taste))

This easy beer bread recipe is delicious and very simple to make. It is perfect as a birthday treat for your favorite beer lover. Or try making several different beer breads and holding a contest in order to see if your friends can identify what beers were used to make the breads. Free beer bread for the winner.

Beer bread is NOT a fancy artisan bread. Rather, beer bread is often used as a basic introductory bread for very new bread makers. It is very easy to make, uses simple ingredients, doesn’t require much work (i.e. no kneading involved), doesn’t rely on waiting for the bread to rise and most importantly, it tastes great (if you like beer)!

For the best flavor, you should use your FAVORITE beer that has a DISTINCTIVE taste. Also don’t pick a stronger tasting beer if you don’t like it. That leftover specialty pumpkin beer that you hated a couple months ago is not going to taste much better as a beer bread. The best tasting beer breads use a beer that you love! Moreover, since beer bread uses baking powder (and not yeast), you get a great tasting bread without any kneading involved… and this means that beer bread is a super easy bread to make.

This recipe should take you roughly 10 minutes to prepare and clean up. Please be aware that this is an oven-baked recipe. It is not made with a bread machine. For similar fun recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s section on Easy Quick Breads. Bread Dad also has a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page. If you like this recipe, we hope you will leave a comment below and give us a 5 star rating. Thanks!

Key Ingredient – Your Favorite Beer!!!

Mix Dry Ingredients then add Butter & Beer

Don’t Over Mix the Dough

Scoop Dough Into A Bread Pan & Then Pour Melted Butter On Top

Sliced Beer Bread – Delicious!!!

Ingredients – Easy Beer Bread Recipe

3 Cups – Flour (all-purpose flour) – This recipe does not use self-rising flour
4 Tablespoons – White Granulated Sugar
1 Teaspoon – Salt
3 Teaspoons – Baking Powder (aluminum free)
1 – Egg
8 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (melted) – 1/2 of butter will be used “inside” the bread and the other 1/2 is poured on top of the dough in order to create a crunchy & buttery top.
12 Ounces – Beer (use your favorite beer with a distinctive taste)

Servings – Roughly 12 slices

Equipment required for this recipe – Measuring cup & spoons, large mixing bowl, wooden spoon, silicon spatula, 9×5 bread pan, oven mitts, cooling rack and an oven.

Instructions – Easy Beer Bread Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Grease the bread pan (bottom & sides of pan), spray the bread pan, use baking parchment paper or use a good nonstick bread pan in order to prevent the beer bread from sticking to the bread pan.
Mix all of the dry ingredients together first. This helps to ensure the baking powder, salt & light brown sugar are evenly mixed throughout the flour.
Lightly beat the egg.
Melt the butter in a microwave.
Add the egg, beer and 1/2 of the butter (4 tablespoons). Gently stir until all ingredients are mixed together.
Scoop the finished dough out of the mixing bowl and place it in a 9 by 5 bread pan. Smooth out the top of the bread dough within the bread pan.
Pour the remaining 1/2 of melted butter (4 tablespoons) on top of the bread dough within the bread pan. This will help to create a crunchy & buttery top to the bread.
Place the bread pan in the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes. Wear oven mitts when dealing with bread pan & oven.
When done, remove the bread pan from the oven. Wear oven mitts when dealing with bread pan & oven.
Let the bread cool within the bread pan for 10 minutes.
Remove the bread from the bread pan. Place the bread on a wire cooling rack in order to finish its cooldown. Allow the beer bread to completely cool before cutting the bread.

In the comment box at the bottom of the page, please tell us your favorite beer & if it worked well as a beer bread. I would love to know which beers worked best… so I can try them out. Only out of professional curiosity, of course!!!!

Reference Sources

Wikipedia, Beer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer
Wikipedia, Beer Styles, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_style
Wikipedia, Beer Bread, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_bread
Wikipedia, Quick Bread, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_bread

Tips – Easy Beer Bread Recipe

The tips below are designed to help bread “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
Warning – Eat too many delicious beer breads… and you will get a beer (bread) belly!
Beer bread is a fun & very basic bread and is often used to help novice bakers learn how to successfully make an easy bread. For more advanced bread recipes (i.e. multigrain bread, French bread & Italian bread), please visit Bread Dad’s section on Bread Machine Recipes.
Beer bread is often used as a breakfast bread (perfect with cream cheese or butter) or as a side dish served with soup, chili, etc.
Our recipe does NOT create a sandwich-type bread. Our bread has a hard buttery crust with a soft & tender interior.
As I said at the top of the page, the key to great beer bread is the use of your FAVORITE beer that has a DISTINCTIVE taste. However, don’t pick a stronger tasting beer if you don’t like it. The best tasting beer bread uses a beer that you love!!!!
I like to use a darker & stronger tasting beer (i.e. Guinness) in order to generate more beer flavor in my beer breads. However, you can use any beer that you like as long as it has a distinct taste. Unfortunately, in my opinion, most light beers have a very mild taste and thus they might not be the best option for homemade beer bread.
Remember to pour 1/2 of the melted butter in with the ingredients. This helps to create a slightly buttery taste to the bread interior. The other 1/2 of the melted butter is poured on top of the dough (just before you place the bread pan in the oven) in order to create a crunchy & buttery top.
After you have added the melted butter to the top of the dough, it will be a liquid sitting on top of the dough within the bread pan.
Given the occasional “stickiness” of the exterior butter crust, you need to make sure that you have used one of the following options: greased the bread pan (bottom & sides of pan), used baking parchment paper or a loaf liner, sprayed the interior of the bread pan or used a good nonstick bread pan. The safest bet might be to use the loaf liner or baking parchment paper option. This step is necessary in order to prevent the bread from sticking to the bread pan (and thus avoid any problems getting the bread out of the bread pan). If needed, you can find loaf liners & baking parchment paper on Bread Dad’s Tools section.
I added the egg for its flavor, moisture & slight leavening effect. It also helps to create a softer bread interior. An egg seems to reduce the potential that your bread might come out as a hard dense brick (which is a problem with some other beer bread recipes).
Beer bread is very quick to make because there is no kneading and no waiting for yeast to rise.
Your beer bread will develop cracks on the top of the bread… this is part of the “rustic” charm of beer bread! Baking powder rises faster than bread yeast and this can cause the bread top to crack during the baking process.
Some beer bread recipes recommend that you use a “bland” beer when making your beer bread. This is fine if you want a beer bread that tastes… bland! However, I would suggest using your favorite stronger tasting beer. This will results in a bread that tastes much more like a… beer!
However, be aware that most beer breads do not have an overpowering taste of beer (as the beer flavor is “diluted” by the flour, baking process, etc.). What you get is a tasty bread with a mild beer flavor.
Some people like to add ingredients such as herbs or shredded cheese with jalapenos into their beer bread in order to make it even more flavorful (especially if they are using a bland beer). However, I feel like they are just making a herb bread or cheese bread versus a beer bread. Use a distinctive tasting beer (versus herbs or cheese) in order to make a great tasting BEER bread.
I think our bread is delicious (even if you use a bland beer) and doesn’t need herbs or shredded cheese. However, if you want to experiment with flavors, you can add 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning (or your favorite dried herbs) to this recipe. You will be making a nice herb bread… with a hint of beer!
If you need some ideas for beers that are dark with distinctive tastes, you should look at the beers within beer categories such as brown ales, stout beers, porter beers, dark lagers, etc.

Many beer bread recipes recommend using self-rising flour. However, self-rising flour is essentially just all-purpose flour combined with baking powder and salt. It is cheaper to use your own flour, baking powder and salt (versus running out to the store in order to buy self-rising flour) when you are making your homemade bread.
Our beer bread recipe uses all-purpose flour and not self-rising flour. If use self-rising flour (instead of the all-purpose flour called for in this recipe), you will need to eliminate the salt & 3 teaspoons of baking powder called for in this recipe (as the self-rising flour already has baking powder & salt in it).
After mixing & pouring the dough into the bread pan, you should put the bread pan straight into the oven. This recipe does not use yeast. Therefore, you do not need to let it rise before putting it in the oven.
You do not have to knead or shape the dough by hand. Just smooth out the top of the dough in the bread pan with a flexible spatula or large wooden spoon.
Don’t over mix the dough or you will end up with a dense tough bread. You shouldn’t spend hours mixing this dough (because this is a no-knead beer bread).
As I said at the top of the page, if you want a fun evening, you can make several different breads (i.e. breads using dark beer vs wheat beer vs India Pale Ale) and hold a contest to see if your friends & family can identify the specific beers or beer types used to make these breads.
This recipe uses 12 ounces of beer… also don’t let your spouse sample the beer as you are making the beer bread or you might run out of the main ingredient!
Beer bread is an adult snack given the (non-sweet) semi-yeasty beer flavor of this quick bread.
In case you are worried about the alcohol content in beer bread, most of the beer will evaporate during the baking process.
Bread yeast is not used in this bread recipe. Classic beer bread recipes generally use baking powder or self rising flour to achieve the leavening (rising) of the bread. However, you can find online beer bread recipes that use bread yeast if you want to experiment with different types of bread bread.
This bread is a type of quick bread because it uses baking soda/powder. Other types of quick breads include banana bread, cornbread, pumpkin bread, etc. However, unlike banana bread and pumpkin bread, our beer bread is a non-sweet quick bread.
Make sure to use fresh baking powder or the bread will not rise properly. Once its container is opened, the baking powder will last for only roughly 6 months. Moreover, it will lose its potency even faster if the baking powder is not stored properly (i.e. it is exposed to the moisture in the air).
If you do not have aluminum free baking powder, “regular” baking powder should work fine (as long as it is relatively fresh). However, I prefer to use aluminum free food ingredients when making food for my family.
Interesting fact – Our recipe is for a beer bread… but you can also make beer from bread. According to Wikipedia, Toast Ale is made from “surplus bread from the catering trade, as part of a campaign to reduce food waste” and to reduce the methane produced by leftover bread when it decomposes in a landfill. Other beers from bread include “include Sahti in Finland, Kvass in Russia and Ukraine, and Bouza in Egypt and Sudan.
Beer facts – According to Wikipedia, “The basic ingredients of beer are water; a starch source, such as malted barley, able to be saccharified (converted to sugars) then fermented (converted into ethanol and carbon dioxide); a brewer’s yeast to produce the fermentation; and a flavouring such as hops. A mixture of starch sources may be used, with a secondary carbohydrate source, such as maize (corn), rice, wheat, or sugar, often being termed an adjunct, especially when used alongside malted barley. Less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava root in Africa, and potato in Brazil, and agave in Mexico, among others”.
Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a hot oven and bread pan.
For other easy quick bread recipes (i.e. pumpkin bread and applesauce bread), please visit Bread Dad’s main section on Quick Bread Recipes.

If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. The recipe comment section is located at the bottom of this page. Your comments help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. Moreover, it is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!

Related Recipes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

5 from 8 votes

Easy Beer Bread - Recipe for Beer Lovers

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time50 mins

Total Time1 hr

Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: American, European

Keyword: beer bread, beer bread recipe, easy beer bread, easy beer bread recipe

Servings: Slices

Calories: 214kcal

Author: Bread Dad

Ingredients

3 Cups Flour (all-purpose flour) - This recipe does not use self-rising flour
4 Tablespoons White Granulated Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
3 Teaspoons Baking Powder (aluminum free)
1 Egg
8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (melted) - 1/2 of butter will be used "inside" the bread and the other 1/2 is poured on top of the dough in order to create a crunchy & buttery top.
12 Ounces Beer (use your favorite beer with a distinctive taste)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Grease the bread pan (bottom & sides of pan), spray the bread pan, use baking parchment paper or use a good nonstick bread pan in order to prevent the beer bread from sticking to the bread pan.
Mix all of the dry ingredients together first. This helps to ensure the baking powder, salt & light brown sugar are evenly mixed throughout the flour.
Lightly beat the egg.
Melt the butter in a microwave.
Add the egg, beer and 1/2 of the butter (4 tablespoons). Gently stir until all ingredients are mixed together.
Scoop the finished dough out of the mixing bowl and place it in a 9 by 5 bread pan. Smooth out the top of the bread dough within the bread pan.
Pour the remaining 1/2 of melted butter (4 tablespoons) on top of the bread dough within the bread pan. This will help to create a crunchy & buttery top to the bread.
Place the bread pan in the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes. Wear oven mitts when dealing with bread pan & oven.
When done, remove the bread pan from the oven. Wear oven mitts when dealing with bread pan & oven.
Let the bread cool within the bread pan for 10 minutes.
Remove the bread from the bread pan. Place the bread on a wire cooling rack in order to finish its cooldown. Allow the beer bread to completely cool before cutting the bread.

Notes

This is a Bread Dad recipe and may not be copied or reproduced. This recipe is copyright protected under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

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Nutrition

If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. Your comments really help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. Beginning bakers also learn a lot from your baking suggestions, ideas & recipe variations.

Moreover, it is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!