Beer Bread

10 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Resting Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour

This Easy Beer Bread recipe has just a few ingredients (no yeast!) and a bottle of beer to get the best homemade quick bread for dinner! Serve with soup, dips, or bratwurst.

The next time you need a quick bread for dinner, try this this easy no-knead Bread Recipe. Like these Dinner Rolls, this bread is made with simple ingredients and ready in about an hour.

Beer Bread sliced loaf on cutting board

BEER BREAD

Beer Bread is a no-knead quick bread recipe that you can throw together in minutes and is ready in an hour. It’s great for busy weeknights and the mild, slightly sweet bread is the perfect side dish for all your coziest Stew and Soup Recipes

This simple Beer Bread is a perfect starter recipe for making homemade bread. It is easy to make and only has a handful of common pantry ingredients. Beer Bread is buttery and chewy, with a slight sweetness from the granulated sugar. Brushing with melted butter in the final few minutes of baking is a simple way to give this bread so much flavor.

Beer Bread doesn’t use any activated dry yeast or instant yeast and you don’t need to use a stand mixer. You can mix your bread dough by hand in one bowl with this easy Beer Bread recipe. The addition of baking powder works with the beer and sugar as the leavening agent and keeps the loaf from being dense.

What kind of beer to use in Beer Bread?

If you’ve never tried it, you are probably wondering if Beer Bread tastes like beer. Beer Bread doesn’t taste like beer, but the type of beer you use does make a difference in flavor. This is an inexpensive bread recipe so you can test out which beer you like best.

A mild pale beer, like a pilsner, gives the bread a slightly yeasty flavor. Fruity beers will give the bread a sweeter, fruity flavor. IPAs and dark lagers will add a robust, hoppy flavor. For a rich, dark Beer Bread try a coffee stout or a porter.

Beer Bread is great any time of year, but you’ll love it when the weather cools off and you are craving a big warm bowl of soup. Slice a loaf of Beer Bread to serve with hearty, cozy favorites like Ham and Potato SoupVegetable Soup, and Beef Stew. Spread salted butter on a slice for a tasty easy snack or breakfast.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH BEER BREAD

Beer Bread in loaf pan

VARIATIONS ON BEER BREAD

  • Cheddar Cheese Bread: Add 2 teaspoons garlic powder to your dry ingredients and fold in a ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese to the batter. For Jalapeño Cheddar Beer Bread, add diced fresh jalapeños!
  • Sweet Beer Bread: Increase the sugar to ½ cup granulated sugar (or brown sugar) for a sweet Beer Bread. Use a fruit beer like a Lambic or Belgian ale.
  • Pumpkin Beer Bread: Make a dessert bread by using a bottle of pumpkin beer. Sift 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice with the flour mixture and fold in 1 cup Pumpkin Puree. Bake for about 10-15 minutes longer than normal.
  • Vegan Beer Bread: For vegan Beer Bread, simply brush the loaf with olive oil or a butter substitute instead of unsalted butter. 
  • Garlic Herb Beer Bread: Mix in fresh minced garlic chopped roasted garlic and a few teaspoons of your favorite fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, and oregano.
  • Add-Ins: You can really get creative with the mix-ins in Beer Bread batter. Depending on the beer you use, try savory add-ins like nuts, chocolate chips, fresh berries, cooked bacon. The possibilities are endless!
  • Flour: You can substitute self-rising flour, gluten-free flour, or whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour in equal amounts. Wheat flour may make your bread a little denser so you can add ½ teaspoon baking powder.
  • Non-Alcoholic Beer Bread: If you don’t want to use beer for this recipe, substitute 1 ½ cup plain seltzer water to make Non-Alcoholic Beer Bread.
  • Beer Bread Muffins: Prepare batter and divide evenly between 12 greased muffin cups. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake muffins for 14-18 minutes, or until muffins spring back when pressed.

MORE MAIN DISHES TO SERVE WITH BEER BREAD

HOW TO STORE BEER BREAD

  • Serve: Keep this Beer Bread wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 3 days.
  • Store: To keep Beer Bread fresh longer, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
  • Freeze: Cool Beer Bread completely and slice. Place parchment between slices and arrange as a loaf. Wrap in plastic wrap and then in a freezer safe bag. Freeze for up 6 months, reheating slices from frozen.

Beer Bread slices in stack

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Beer Bread Recipe

This Easy Beer Bread recipe has just a few ingredients (no yeast!) and a bottle of beer to get the best homemade quick bread for dinner!
Yield 10 Servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Bread
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 12 ounces beer , room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Butter a 9x5 loaf pan and sprinkle with cornmeal.
  • Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and beer in a large bowl.
  • Place batter in the pan and let sit 20 minutes.
  • Bake for 35 minutes, then brush the butter on top of the bread and bake an additional 5 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 181kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 6mg | Sodium: 236mg | Potassium: 171mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 70IU | Calcium: 59mg | Iron: 2mg

Homenade Beer Bread collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Thank you Sabrina for sharing this wonderful beer bread recipe..it’s absolutely delicious..I went right by the recipe..it’s so soft and smells awesome..you’re a great chef..Blessings

  2. This looks like a nice and easy quarantine recipe! Is the flour measurement the same using whole wheat flour? Thank you!