This worked out really well…
A friend and I have been meaning to do a serial experiment where I would brew an ale and he would use the barm to feerment a mead. Scheduling something like that (us being adults with commitments and decent distance between us) is difficult, so I decided to try a kickoff experiment of my own.
I brewed an English Brown Ale and saved the yeast slurry from the fermenter. I kept it in the fridge, letting the yeast settle out and washing it (pouring off the ale-brown liquid from the top, replacing with fresh water and repeating for a few days).
I used that yeast to make a bread, following a recipe we like (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day). The bread was fantastic. Just in the first double batch, it was a significant improvement over the recipe I’ve made a bunch of times before. I accidentally over-proofed one loaf so I had pulled a second to do a side-by-side comparison. The over-proofed loaf was still good, but the second was great.
Compared to the usual bread, the crust was softer but still crusty enough and the crumb was as good as usual. I can’t say much about the flavor as we’re always happy with the recipe, but as an experiment and as a new standard recipe going forward? This is a winner.
I’ll make more - I have tons of the yeast slurry, still, and it can’t keep forever - and I’ll mix in some of the spent grains I’ve been keeping around, too, to use those up (and to add flavor, color, texture and nutrition). I’m also going to get a bunch of loaves proofed, formed and frozen to see how using those will be, going forward.
If I can wind up with loads of frozen loaves just waiting to go, it’ll make SCA feast prep so much easier, not to mention easy additions to soup/stew nights at home, gifts for folks, etc.