How to Bake Bread With Trub

The yeasty residue left from brewing beer, known as trub, is usually discarded. When drawing off the beer from the fermentation vessel, brewers take great care not to contaminate the freshly brewed beer with the trub, since this can taint the taste of the beer. While the spent grains from making beer can be used for baking breads or for animal feeds, attempts to bake bread with trub may have mixed results. Some trubs have strong flavors that may adversely affect the taste of the bread. Making a sourdough starter from the trub instead of adding it directly to the bread can help mitigate these off flavors, as does using stronger tasting flour such as whole wheat and rye.

Things You'll Need

• One cup trub
• One cup water
• ½ cup rye flour
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 2 cups white flour
• 4 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• Oil for bread pans

Instructions

1. Make a starter from the trub. Combine the water, rye flour and sugar and the one cup of trub. Mix well, cover, and set aside in a warm dark place overnight.

2. Measure out one cup of starter. Mix in 2 cups white flour and 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour, the warm water and the salt and honey. Mix well. Cover and let sit overnight.

3. Mix in the remaining whole wheat flour, ½ cup at a time. When the dough is thick enough to handle, turn it out onto a floured countertop and knead in any remaining flour.

4. Grease two cookie sheets. Divide the bread dough and shape into two oblong or round loafs. Make a couple of diagonal slashes in the top of each loaf. Cover with a cloth and set aside to rise for several hours, until double in bulk.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake bread for thirty minutes, then lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake ten to fifteen minutes more.

Tips & Warnings

• Only use as much flour as needed to work the dough. Depending on your climate, you may not need the entire amount listed.

• This method is for an old-fashioned loaf of bread with a sourdough taste. You could use the trub starter in any other kind of sourdough recipe.

References

• Whole Wheat Bread Made With Beer Barm
• Sourdough Home

Resources

• Glossary of Beer Brewing Terms