The grain that makes up this bread has had another life the last 5 days. It’s been making beer.
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Well, I say beer, but the liquid I make from it doesn’t resemble commercial beer much. Firstly, it’s only got one ingredient – spelt. Secondly, it’s created following a super-low-tech 5,000-year-old process, one part of which is using partially-baked bread. Thirdly, it’s unpasteurised and probiotic.
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It’s much lower in alcohol than what we think of as beer today. It tastes different too – it’s sharp.
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Once the ‘beer’ has been made, I collect all the spent grain and use it to make bread. The bread is, I imagine, slightly less carby than ‘normal’ bread as some of the spent grain in it has previously been malted (i.e. turned from complex to simple sugar). The flavour is more sour than my sourdoughs. The texture is chewy – like that of sprouted bread (if you’ve ever eaten that, you’ll know what I mean).
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It is *really* good.
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And it feels like I made it from nothing as we have beer too!
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Such a satisfying process.