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This easy homemade beer bread recipe makes the perfect side dish to your favorite soup or salad, and adds a hearty touch to any meal. Uses simple ingredients found in your pantry.
When a reader asks for a recipe, I’m always happy to help. So when I received an email looking for an easy homemade beer bread recipe, I went searching. I had a vague memory of making this years ago, but I wasn’t sure if the recipe had survived. Thankfully, it was still tucked away in my recipe box! After baking a fresh loaf, I was reminded just how simple and delicious it is. This rustic, savory bread pairs perfectly with soups, salads, and hearty meals. All it takes is a few basic ingredients and a bottle of beer, so let’s get started.
Why This Recipe Works
This classic recipe for savory beer bread is super simple, and uses just 5 ingredients. It has a buttery crust with great flavor, and should definitely be added to your collection of quick bread recipes!
The Simple Ingredients
This delicious recipe has just 5 basic ingredients and is baked in a standard loaf pan. Since there are no extra spices, the flavor of the beer shines through. Don’t make any substitutions for the ingredients, because this beer bread has a wonderful yeasty flavor, and bakes perfectly every time.
- All purpose flour
- White sugar
- Baking powder
- Salted butter: if you don’t have salted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon salt to the dry ingredients before adding the beer.
- Beer
Easy Additions
- Various herbs: after removing the loaf of bread from the pan, sprinkle it with finely chopped parsley, rosemary, or thyme.
- Shredded cheese: when the loaf of bread is still hot, before slicing, add finely shredded cheddar cheese or parmesan cheese to the top of the loaf.
- It’s also delicious to add a teaspoon of garlic powder to the top of the loaf before baking.
How To Make
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Prepare a 9 x 5 glass baking dish. (I use Baker’s Joy to prepare my baking pans.)
- Divide the stick of butter in two.
- Melt one half of the butter.
- Pour the 4 tablespoons of melted butter into prepared baking dish.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl with a hand mixer, add the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
- Using the paddle attachment, on the lowest speed, mix together the dry ingredients.
- Still on the lowest speed, slowly add the beer.
- Mix just until combined, making sure to get all the flour incorporated. The dough will come together and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Pour dough into glass baking dish. Smooth to the sides. (It’s OK if the corners aren’t filled. They will fill as the bread bakes.)
- Divide the other half stick of butter into 6 slices.
- Place butter pats on top of the loaf.
- Place dough filled baking dish on a cookie sheet.
- Baking time is 50-60 minutes. Bread is done when the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.
- Let bread cool on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes or until all the butter has been soaked back into the bread.
- Remove from pan, slice, and serve.
Tips For Great Beer Bread
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, a regular mixer can be used. The dough can also be mixed by hand.
- Don’t worry about getting the dough perfectly placed in the pan. The dough comes away easily from the mixing bowl, but it is slightly sticky. After the dough goes in the pan, smooth it out the best you can, but a rustic look is what you want.
- Make sure you put a cookie sheet under the bread pan before you place it in the oven. As the butter heats up and bubbles, it may overflow.
- This beer bread recipe is delicious warm from the oven. It’s a large loaf, so chances are it won’t get eaten all at once. It can be wrapped in plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container for up to two days at room temperature. After that, it’s best to place it in the refrigerator.
- If you like quick bread with a dense, hearty texture, this recipe is for you. Because it’s so sturdy, it works well to slice the loaf with a serrated knife.
- After a few days, the slices of bread can be warmed in the microwave. They also make the best toast ever!
What Kind of Beer?
For this loaf, I used a bottle of Yuengling traditional lager, which is an amber beer. I am not a beer expert, but I know that many recipes call for a darker beer. Any type of beer can be used: light beer, pale ales, even flavored beers like pumpkin beer. My advice is to use your favorite beer, or whatever you have on hand.
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Beer Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
- 12 oz. beer
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Prepare a 9 x 5 glass baking dish. (I use Baker's Joy to prepare my baking pans.)
- Divide the stick of butter in two.
- Melt one half of the butter.
- Pour the melted butter into prepared baking dish.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
- Using the paddle attachment, on the lowest speed, mix together the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
- Still on the lowest speed, slowly add the beer.
- Mix just until combined, making sure to get all the flour incorporated. The dough will come together and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Pour dough into glass baking dish. Smooth to the sides. (It's OK if the corners aren't filled. They will fill as the bread bakes.)
- Divide the other half stick of butter into 6 slices.
- Top dough with butter pats.
- Place dough filled baking dish on a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes. Bread is done when the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.
- Let rest on a cooling rack for 5 to 10 minutes or until all the butter has been soaked back into the bread.
- Remove from pan, slice, and serve.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
If you make this recipe, and love it, please come back to leave a comment and a 5-star review. I would really appreciate it, and it would help me so much. Thank you!
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Can you use zero alcohol beer in this recipe? Thank you. Love your blog.
Can you use a stoneware loaf pan?
Yes! That should work great. I love my stoneware loaf pan!
I have used this recipe several times and prefer it to the one that uses Bisquick. I have tried several beers and find that DOS EQUIS works best for me. I have tried stouts, IPA’s, foreign and domestic beers, but this one seems to work best for me. What type of beer works well for you?
Just made some cookies for my in-laws recently and read up on salted butter vs unsalted butter…there is a difference other than the salt..preservatives in the salted keeps it fresh longer.and the unsalted will have a fresher taste as the expiration will be shorter..interesting I thought.
Beer bread with added cheese sounds wonderful!
Really want to make this, but only have a hand held mixer. Will bread turn out ok?
Yes…a hand mixer will work fine!
This has a great crumb and texture! I think it would benefit from a little salt, and the large amount of baking powder – a base – gives this bread a bitter finish. Wondering what would happen if you were to reduce the baking powder to 2 teaspoons.
I made this during quarantine and shared the recipe with so many friends — we ALL loved it!
The beer bread I’d delicious! Also so easy to make.
I found a recipe for Beer Bread while we were first issued our Covid 19 Stay at Home orders this March. I have made it every week since! Have used various beers – whatever is on hand is used; have loved every loaf. . Great with stews and chili’s. We also like it toasted in the morning; with a little butter and honey on it. Only difference between Your recipe and the one I have been using is my recipe calls for melted all the butter then pouring the second 1/2 over the top of the loaf right before placing it in the oven.
It’s a hearty bread so not sure how often I will make it during the summer but you never know! Could also add grated cheese to the batter
Made it tonight and everyone loved it. Simple, easy, savory. Definitely a keeper. Shared it on Facebook and about five others made it too! :)
Being bored this afternoon and wanting to cook something different for supper, I decided to try this beer bread recipe, simple ingredients, straight forward recipe, didn’t take much time. I just want to say it is delicious. We have a favorite Irish restaurant that serves beer bread at the table, this recipe is even better than that. Thank you for our new favorite bread.
Made this tonight. It was simple to make and was excellent!
My husband said this recipe is a keeper.
Thanks for sharing!
Does it matter if the beer is cold or should it be room temperature?
Thank you.
Hi Christine…I used beer straight out of the refrigerator. I don’t think it matters!
Okay. Thank you!!
This recipe has been in my recipe box for a while. My family loves it. My oldest son who is on his own makes it a lot. His addition is to add 1/2-1 cup of shredded or cubed extra sharp cheese to the batter. I have had to change my diet to gluten free – so with this reminder going to try with gluten free beer and flour.
This is the recipe I use, too, with a few tweaks to the process. I mix the batter by hand; it’s easy. I melt the whole stick of butter, use half in the batter, and pour the remainder over the dough after it’s been globbed into the pan. I used a nonstick metal bread pan, and it worked like a charm.
Thank you for sharing! I wanted to make this but wasn’t sure if I could with my nonstick pan :) will make it tonight!