Classic Guinness Beer Bread requires nothing more than a bottle of beer, a few simple pantry ingredients and a loaf pan.
This Guinness beer bread is moist, dense and chewy. It’s perfect along side that cottage pie or pot roast recipe.
I’m looking forward to St. Patrick’s Day!
This winter has been long and cold and the Irish holiday means spring is right around the corner.
We plan to celebrate the holiday in style. Our town hosts a yearly St. Patrick’s day parade. When you live in Dublin, Ohio, it is the parade to attend on St. Patrick’s Day.
Our little corner of the Midwest is the sister city to the real Dublin, Ireland. We celebrate with all foods Irish and with that only the finest stouts and whiskeys.
This Guinness beer bread recipe is super easy to mix up in about five minutes. An hour in the oven and this robust yet slightly sweet bread has the most satisfying flavor.
What is the best ale to use in this recipe?
Any kind of beer can be used in this recipe.
If you use a stout like a Guinness dark beer, your bread will be darker with a more pronounced flavor.
Using a lighter beer, like in this honey beer bread, yields a loaf with a less intense flavor.
What does beer do to bread?
All beer contains live yeast in the bottle. Therefore, you don’t need to add it to your bread recipe. The beer is used in place of yeast for the leavening.
Don’t worry, the alcohol evaporates during baking.
The Guinness beer gives the frothy fermentation needed to give this bread it’s rise. The brown sugar provides the slight sweetness. No yeast needed. It’s in the beer!
It’s deliciously nutty and moist and I love it freshly sliced or toasted.
This recipe calls for Guinness beer but surely any Irish beer will do. I like to use the dark stout as well as Guinness’ blonde lager.
Serve it with traditional Cottage Pie or use it to make Sautéed Guinness Mushrooms or Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies.
Have you ever made homemade bread? Be sure to try my honey beer bread as well as my dutch oven crusty bread.
Guinness Beer Bread
Classic Guinness Beer Bread requires nothing more than a bottle of beer, a few simple pantry ingredients and a loaf pan.
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 12-ounce bottle Guinness Beer
- Cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon oats
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray the inside of a loaf pan with plenty of cooking spray.Using a mixer, blend together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Slowly pour the beer into the dry ingredients mixing slowly. Mixing only takes a minute. Do not over mix. Add the dough to the loaf pan and sprinkle the top with the remaining tablespoon of oats.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the bread is done. When a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean, the bread is done. Set the bread on a rack and allow to cool to room temperature.
Notes
Adapted from The Black Peppercorn. The photos and text of this post was updated March 2019.
If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a photo and hashtag it #homeandplate. I’d love to see what you cook!
I can just imagine buttering a slice of this fresh out of the oven or dunking it in a big bowl of hearty stew! Homemade bread is the best!
I agree. Homemade is so much better. And this recipe is so easy. Thanks.
Love that you used Guinness in this. I bet it makes a big difference in flavor. Can’t wait to taste it.
I’ve made bread with many different kinds of beer. It’s fun to try to taste the difference. They are all amazing.
I can’t belive how easy this is! It looks so fresh and delicious! I love beer so I’m thinking this would be a hit!
Making beer bread takes about an hour. Perfect timing for getting a loaf on the dinner table fast.
I’d never had yeast bread before but I really liked it. Great recipe!
Thanks Emily. With beer bread, you eliminate the need to wait for the dough to rise. It’s so much quicker than traditional.
I haven’t had beer bread in forever! This looks absolutely perfect and now I am craving it! Great recipe!
Thanks Lauren. If you have a bottle in your fridge you likely have the rest of what you need in your pantry. So easy for a quick loaf for dinner.
could I adapt this to cook in my dutch oven? Would I need to adjust the temperature or cooking time? Thank you!
I think so… just follow the directions from this recipe starting at step 3 – https://www.homeandplate.com/blog/no-knead-dutch-oven-crusty-bread Let me know how it turns out.
It came out delicious, a little over done but not by much. I used an oatmeal stout instead of guinness and sub’d molasses for the b sugar. After preheating I lowered the oven to 410 for 30 and then turned it up to 425 to finish browning uncovered the last 15.
thank you!
Yum! This sounds delicious! I love that you swapped out a few ingredients to make it your own. I will definitely have to give this variation a try. Thanks Phil 🙂