Simple Guinness Beer Bread

This easy Irish inspired beer bread recipe is made with Guinness ale and is one of the simplest beer bread recipes you will find. Made with self-rising flour, this no yeast beer bread contains only a few common ingredients and can ready, from start to finish, in under an hour.

Making the Easy Guinness Beer Bread

To make this Irish inspired beer bread you will need 1 bottle of Guinness, self-rising flour, sugar, and butter. This is a no yeast bread recipe, so everything you need to get a good rise from the bread is in the self-rising flour. The four-ingredient bread can be made and ready to eat in under an hour.

How to make the beer bread batter/dough

To make the Guinness beer bread with self-rising flour you will want to sift the flour. If you skip this step, the bread tends to be overly dense and chewy, so sifting is an important step in making the best beer bread ever. Sift the flour into a large measuring cup until you have 3 cups of sifted flour.

Gently mix in the sugar with the flour, then add the room temperature Guinness beer. Mix the batter until just combined. The batter should be thick and fairly dry. Ideally the dough should hold its shape but be easy to spread into the pan.

If the dough seems too dry you can add a little bit of water or milk to loosen it up, but this is a dry batter so don't overdo it. Also, don't worry too much about getting all of the small clumps out of the beer bread dough. Oil the inside of a 9x5 loaf pan and add the dough. Spread the beer bread dough to the edges of the pan, making sure it reaches the corners of the pan.

Baking the bread

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Once your oven has preheated, pour the melted butter over the top of the Guinness Beer Bread.

What is the best temperature to bake beer bread?

Through a fair amount of trial and error, we have found that baking beer bread at 375 degrees (190 Celsius) has given us the best results. We feel that this is the best temperature for baking beer bread, as it allows the bread to cook evenly without the top of the bread getting too dark.

Cook the Irish inspired beer bread on the center rack of the oven, uncovered, for about 25 minutes. Rotate the beer pan 180 degrees and cook for an additional 25 minutes. The beer bread is finished when the top is golden, and you can run a toothpick into the center of the bread, and it comes out clean.

Once the buttery beer bread is done cooking, remove the bread to a wire rack and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.

What to serve beer bread with

This moist and flavorful beer bread goes perfectly with just about any meal and makes great sandwiches. Some of our favorite pairings are with our Over the Top Smoked Mississippi Pot Roast, Texas Red Chili with Smoked Chuck Roast, and Karni Stoba: Caribbean Beef Stew. Of course, we love it with just some spreadable butter or honey.

While you are here, be sure to take a look at some of our other favorite recipes using Guinness or beer:

• Irish Steak and Guinness Pie
• Guinness Beer Battered Cod
• German Beer Pretzels
• Smoked German Beer Cheese Sauce
• Beer Braised Beef Cheek Barbacoa
• Homemade Corned Beef: From Packer to the Table

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