This fast and easy Beer Bread Recipe has only four ingredients—butter, self-rising flour, sugar, and your favorite beer. Soft, buttery, and slightly sweet inside, with a crispy, buttery top, it is perfect for chili, stews, or soups.
A perfect "guy" recipe that goes with most "guy" foods.
🍺Ingredients
Self-rising flour— substitute AP flour, baking powder, and salt
Sugar or honey
Butter
Beer— OR plain seltzer water or a soda.
Optional additions—cheddar cheese, chopped jalapenos, garlic
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Featured Comment from Sarah:
"My husband and I devoured the better part of the loaf, so I'm currently baking another fresh loaf to go with the leftover soup tonight!"
Soft, buttery, and slightly sweet inside with a crispy, buttery top, even the "non-beer" person will love this beer bread. It's super easy to make, even for the non-cook. You can do this.
Slathered with butter, it is an excellent compliment to chili, stews, or soups. Makes great toast and sandwiches.
Check out some quick bread recipes: Old Fashioned Banana Nut Bread, Betty Crockers Corn Bread, Easy Pumpkin Bread, and Easy Apple Bread.
👨🍳How to make Beer Bread
- Combine self-rising flour with sugar.
- Add beer and melted butter. Stir until the foam subsides and all of the dry flour is incorporated. Do not over-mix.
- Pour the batter into a prepared pan and brush the top with more butter.
- Bake in a preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean—about 50 minutes.
This is a summary of the steps and ingredients. See the recipe card or the step-by-step photo instructions below for complete instructions.
Options
- Use seltzer water or soda instead of bear.
- Use 2 tablespoons of honey for the 3 tablespoons of sugar.
- Add optional ingredients like chopped jalapenos, bacon, or garlic.
- Add a cup of shredded cheddar cheese to make cheddar bread.
What is the best beer to use for beer bread?
The easy answer is whatever type of beer you like. Some of the bread tastes will be the beer you add, butter, and a yeasty malt flavor. So use what you want. Something with less intense flavors is probably preferred.
Most people don't think they can tell a taste difference between using darker beers vs. lighter beers or expensive vs. cheap beers. But some feel that more flavor will come through with a robust dark beer.
Serving
This bread goes great with Beef Stew, Crock Pot Chicken Stew, and Stew Meat Chili. It is perfect to serve at tailgating and game-day parties.
Storage
Store at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-4 days—no need for a refrigerator.
It can also be frozen for 4 months.
Making self-rising flour
Self-rising flour is a bit old-fashioned, but it is a shortcut your grandmother would use for biscuits or other quick bread recipes.
It is a standardized mixture, so if you were making biscuits, you would cut in your butter, add some milk, and be ready for the oven.
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Bisquick is self-rising flour with some hydrogenated vegetable shortening added, so you won’t need to add the butter.
❓FAQs
Quick bread is a bread product that uses leavening agents other than yeast or eggs, usually baking soda or baking powder. The texture of quick bread is very different than yeast-leavened bread.
Quick bread has more of a muffin-like texture than yeast bread's gluten texture. Typical quick bread includes banana, soda, beer bread, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, pancakes, scones, and cookies.
When we sift flour, it breaks down any clumps and provides a fluffier result. It also helps mix other ingredients throughout the flour. It will improve the texture a bit. If you don't have an old-school flour sifter, you can get about the same effect using a large fine-mesh strainer.
Do you have to sift if a recipe suggests it? No, but the results will be denser, but not a lot.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Preheat oven to 375° conventional.
Start by prepping a 9 by 4 inch loaf pan with a good spray of PAM or a light coat of butter. Your loaf pan size may vary, but it will be fine.
Combine 3 cups of self-rising flour with 3 tablespoons of sugar. Optional: run the flour/sugar mixture through a sifter. If you do not have self-rising flour, mix 3 cups of AP flour with 4 ½ teaspoons of baking powder and ¾ teaspoons of salt.
Add 12 oz of beer. Add 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Stir until the foam subsides and all of the dry flour is incorporated. Do not over-mix.
Add to prepared pan and level in the pan.
Brush top with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean—about 50 minutes.
Turn onto a rack to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting. Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3-4 days.
📖 Recipe
Beer Bread Recipe with 4 Ingredients
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Ingredients
- 3 cups self-rising flour - Substitute is listed in the instructions
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter - divided
- 12 oz beer
Optional
- 1 cup cheddar or other cheese
- Chopped jalapenos
- garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° conventional.
- Start by prepping a 9 by 4 inch loaf pan with a good spray of PAM or a light coat of butter. Your loaf pan size may vary but will be fine.
- Combine 3 cups of self-rising flour with 3 tablespoons of sugar. Optional: run the flour/sugar mixture through a sifter. If you do not have self-rising flour, mix 3 cups of AP flour with 4 ½ teaspoons of baking powder and ¾ teaspoons of salt.
- Add 12 oz of beer. Add 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Stir until the foam subsides and all of the dry flour is incorporated. Do not over-mix.
- Add the batter to the prepared pan and level in the pan.
- Add to prepared pan and level in the pan.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. About 50 minutes.
- Turn onto a rack to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting. Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3-4 days.
Recipe Notes
Recipe Tips:
- Use the beer of your choice. You can substitute 1 ½ cups (12 ounces) plain seltzer water or a soda.
- To make one cup of self-rising flour mix 1 cup of all-purpure flour with 1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
- I suggest sifting the flour to make the bread less dense. You skip it if you want.
- This bread is easy to add things. A cup of cheese, some chopped-up pickled jalapenos, or some garlic powder. Have some fun with it. Google will give you endless suggestions.
- Good sealed tightly for about 3-4 days or frozen for 4 months.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally Published March 11, 2018. Updated with more explanation, refreshed photos, and table of contents.
Based on King Authur's Classic Beer Bread.
Laurajay says
Dr Dan looks yummy, I cannot wait to try. thanks for your bog and all your recipes.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Thanks for the note.
It goes great with chili.
Dan
Sarah says
I made this yesterday to go with the soup I made for Easter dinner. I bake a lot of yeast breads but with this pandemic I'm trying to ration my yeast as I only have about 1/2 pound left. I haven't made beer bread for many years and 15 years ago when I made it I just used a box mix. Like most things, it is so very much better homemade! I read a lot of recipes on line in order to pick the one I wanted to make and wound up picking yours. No regrets there as it was fabulous! I really appreciated all the details and tips you added including your recipe for self rising flour which is not something I typically keep on hand. My husband and I devoured the better part of the loaf so I'm currently baking another fresh loaf to go with the leftover soup tonight!
Marg says
It looks yummy and i am going to try it, but please edit your post. Autocorrect is not our friend....it is a flour *sifter*, not *shifter*! Was puzzled on why you were going to shift your flour and where you were planning to shift it to :)
DrDan says
Hi Marg,
Thanks for the note and proofread. Yes, the Mac autocorrect drives me crazy at times. I think windows is at least better at that. The daylight savings change also may have contributed.
Dan