Beer bread is the latest culinary craze to hit Toronto

It seems beer is at the forefront of the hottest trends these days. 

First it was beer yoga – the ingenious activity that lets you drink while exercising – and now it's all about beer bread: the ancient method of making bread with beer. 

Beer and bread have an ancient history that goes way back to its origins – there's a reason why they call beer liquid bread – so breweries have been leveraging that relationship in real time by partnering with some of Toronto's many bakeries to create their own beer bread recipes.

Henderson is working with the bakers at Drake Commissary to turn their leftover barley grains into organic bread in an attempt to upcycle their spent grain – a tasty alternative to turning it into compost or animal feed. 

Meanwhile Muskoka Brewery has been partnering with the ever-popular Ace Bakery for the last year running beer bread baking classes at Loblaws around the city.

Other restaurants are opting to make their beer bread inhouse, like Beerbistro, the beer-centric restaurant that uses the St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout by Montreal's McAuslan Brewing to make their own flatbreads. 

Co-owner of the Bloordale Village beer spot Burdock Brewery Matt Park says that their transition into bread beer-making was an obvious route. 

"For us, it's a natural fit," he says.

According to Park, the Bloordale Village brewery's recent introduction  of a dry Irish stout – they don't usually brew many dark beers – inspired the chef to add a new sourdough beer bread to the menu two months ago. 

With a full bakery onsite, Burdock typically has three to four sourdoughs available for sale in their bottle shop already. Now they've begun substituting water with their new stout to bake full loaves of sourdough bread, which they sell for $6. 

Park says the stout adds a bit of colour and sweetness to their bread, and adds a different dimension to the brewery's offerings. "It's pretty cost effective for us," he says. 

Beer bread isn't usually too difficult to make, and judging by the number of new breweries popping up in Toronto, it wouldn't be surprising to see more menus featuring beer bread as an option. 

by Tanya Mok via blogTO