Dark Beer & Chocolate Chips Sourdough Bread

Here is a recipe of the delicious and flavorful dark beer and chocolate chips sourdough bread that my friend Maria was so kind to share with me.

The combination of dark beer and chocolate chips sounds unusual, but I was blown away by the result of the final bake, its incredible flavor and soft texture.

Are you ready to learn more?

Let’s go!

Ingredients

Sourdough starter 

• 5g sourdough starter
• 35g water
• 30g all purpose flour or bread flour 
• 5g rye flour 

Dough

• 270g bread flour (90%)
• 30g stone ground whole wheat flour (10%)
• 3g malt for flavor(optional)
• 228g dark beer (76%hydration)
• 60g levain (20%)
• 30g honey (10%)
• 6g salt (2%)

Directions 

Starter:  

• 10 pm add starter to the water and whisk together, add flour, mix well, cover loosely, let it sit at room temp 74-78F until. In about 8-10 hours starter has to reach the peak (triple or more in volume). You can learn how to make starter from scratch here.
• Boil the beer and let the cool down before using in the dough. This step will help to evaporate the alcohol ( bacteria and wild yeast from starter, doesn’t like alcohol, it acts very slow with it)

• You want to prepare the beer around the same time. Pour the required amount into a sauce pan and warm it up on a low heat for 10 minutes, let it cool down overnight. This will help with alcohol evaporation which is required in order not to disturb the dough fermentation process.

Dough: 

• 8 am mix flour, beer and honey, cover, let it rest 1 hour for autolyse.
• During the autolyse process flour absorbs water becoming fully hydrated. This activates gluten development.
• 9 am add sourdough starter. 

• Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 minutes, or KitchenAid on speed 3 for 3-4 minutes until well incorporated.
• Also if for some reason you don’t have a mixing machine, you can incorporate starter into the dough by hands. Using the Rubaud method or the slap and fold method (about 5-7 minutes).
• Cover, let it rest for 30 minutes.
• 9:30 am add salt.
• Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 min, or with KitchenAid on speed 3 for 5-6 minutes until well incorporated. The dough should come up together, but still be sticky on the bottom.
• If you are mixing by hands, using the Rubaud method or the slap and fold method it will take about 10 minutes. Do a couple of stops in between mixing, this helps to tighten up gluten.
• We will continue gluten development and structure building by performing stretches and folds during the warm fermentation period.
• Leave to rest for 30 minutes at 74-78F /23-26C.
• 10 am spray your work surface with water, wet your hands to perform lamination.

• Lamination is the process of stretching the dough as thin as you can without ripping it. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top, then fold the dough all together, cover and let it proof.
• 10:45 am 1st stretch and fold.
• 11:30 am 2nd stretch and fold.
• 12.15 pm 3rd stretch and fold.
• Performing stretches and folds help with gluten development.
• Keep monitoring the dough, if it rises too fast, you can shorten the time between stretches to 40 minutes or less.
• After the final stretch let the dough proof for 30 minutes at 76-80F/ 23-26C. You should see some bubbles on the surface, the dough has to become lighter. We are looking for 40%-50% rise. 

Preshaping sourdough 

• 12:45 pm transfer the dough on to a work surface and dust its top with flour. Flip the dough over so the floured side faces down.
• Fold the dough onto itself so the flour on the surface remains entirely on the outside of the loaf. This will become the crust.
• Place the dough round on a work surface and let it rest for 30 minutes uncovered.

Shaping sourdough 

• 1:15 pm dust the dough with whole wheat flour. Use a dough scraper to flip it over on to a work surface so the floured sides face down.
• Starting at the side closest to you, pull the right 2 corners of the dough to the left, then fold them up into half of the dough. Repeat this action on the left side too.
• Finally, roll the dough. Shape it into a smooth, taut roll.
• Transfer the roll, seam side up, to a prepared proofing basket (loaf pan with kitchen towel)
• Cover it with plastic and return the dough to the 80F (27C) environment for 15 minutes.
• Then transfer the dough to rise for 14-24 hours in the refrigerator.

Baking

Next morning:

• Preheat your oven to 500 F, place a cast iron pan with the lid inside for 45 minutes -1 hour.
• Remove the dough from the fridge. 
• Flip it over on a parchment paper, score it with a sharp knife or a scoring lame. 
• Transfer on to the hot cast iron pan, cover with the lid (to create steam for a beautiful and crusty crumb).
• Bake at 500F for 15 minutes with lid on.
• Remove the lid, lower temperature to 450F. 
• Bake for 20 more minutes until golden brown.

Let it cool for 2 hours and enjoy your dark beer and chocolate chips sourdough bread 🍺 🍪

Dark Beer & Chocolate Chips Sourdough Bread

1870kcal

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Prep 45 minutes mins

Cook 35 minutes mins

Rise & Rest Time 1 day d 1 hour hr

Total 1 day d 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Bold, complex, and uncommonly flavorful, this artisan boule features a high-hydration sourdough matrix where water is entirely replaced by a rich, dark beer reduction. Swept with a touch of sweet honey and packed with premium dark chocolate chips, this unique combination yields a soft, chewy, malty interior balanced by a beautifully blistered, caramelized crust.

Cuisine American / Creative Artisan Sourdough

Ingredients

Sourdough Starter (Levain – Night Before)

• ▢ 5 g Sourdough starter culture
• ▢ 35 g Water
• ▢ 30 g All purpose flour (or bread flour)
• ▢ 5 g Rye flour

The Dark Beer Artisan Dough

• ▢ 270 g Bread flour (90%)
• ▢ 30 g Stone-ground whole wheat flour (10%)
• ▢ 3 g Malt powder (Optional, for enhanced malty depth)
• ▢ 228 g Dark beer (Stout or porter – 76% baseline hydration)
• ▢ 60 g Active levain (20% – From the stage above)
• ▢ 30 g Honey (10%)
• ▢ 6 g Fine sea salt (2%)
• ▢ 75 to 100 g Semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (Reserved for lamination folding)

Equipment

• ▢
  Cast Iron Dutch Oven (A heavy combination cooker or deep pot with a tight-fitting lid to trap steam effectively)
• ▢
  Stand Mixer (Highly recommended to smoothly execute the early hydration and high-speed salt mixing)
• ▢
  Dough Scraper (An essential bench knife for cleanly building high surface tension and handling wet dough)
• ▢
  Proofing Basket (A standard round banneton or a deep bowl lined with a heavily floured kitchen towel)
• ▢
  Scoring Lame (Or an ultra-sharp razor blade for swift, clean expansion cuts prior to baking)
• ▢
  Kitchen Scale
• ▢
  Parchment Paper

Method

Prevent Sleep ModePrevent Sleep Mode

Step 1 – Levain Setup & Beer Reduction (Night Before)

1. 10:00 PM – Starter Initialization: In a clean glass jar, add the 5g of mature sourdough starter culture to 35g of room-temperature water and whisk together thoroughly. Stir in 30g of all-purpose flour and 5g of rye flour until no dry pockets remain. Cover loosely and let it sit at room temperature 74–78°F (23–26°C) overnight for 8 to 10 hours until the starter triples in volume.
2. The Beer Alcohol Evaporation: Pour your 228g of dark beer into a small saucepan set over low heat. Warm the beer gently for 10 minutes—do not boil it aggressively, just allow it to simmer slightly. This process evaporates the raw alcohol, which would otherwise stunt or kill the wild yeast cells. Remove from the heat and let the beer cool down completely at room temperature overnight alongside your levain jar.

Step 2 – The Malty Autolyse & Initial Mix

1. 8:00 AM – The Flour Hydration: In your stand mixer bowl, combine your cooled dark beer with the 270g of bread flour, 30g of stone-ground whole wheat flour, and the optional 3g of malt powder. Mix with a heavy spoon or your hands just until a shaggy, raw dough mass forms and no dry spots remain. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 1 full hour to complete the autolyse, fully hydrating the flour starches and activating natural gluten linkages.
2. 9:00 AM – Levain Integration: Pour 60g of your mature, peak-ripened overnight levain and the 30g of honey directly over the autolysed dough.
3. Mechanical Mixing: Secure the bowl in your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes (or use speed 3 on a KitchenAid mixer for 3 to 4 minutes) until the starter and honey are completely incorporated. Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

Step 3 – Salt Emulsification, Chip Lamination & Folds

1. 9:30 AM – Salt Addition & High-Speed Build: Sprinkle the 6g of fine sea salt evenly over the dough surface. Mix on a low speed for 2 to 3 minutes (or KitchenAid speed 3 for 5 to 6 minutes) until well incorporated. The dough should pull together into a cohesive ball but remain slightly sticky on the bottom. Cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes at 74–78°F (23–26°C).
2. 10:00 AM – The Chocolate Chip Lamination: Spray your work surface lightly with water and wet your hands. Tip the dough onto the counter and gently stretch it outward horizontally and vertically as thin as you can go without ripping it. Sprinkle your 75g to 100g of dark chocolate chips uniformly across the entire surface of the stretched dough sheet. Fold the dough cleanly like a letter into thirds, roll it up into a compact package, and place it back into a clean proofing container. Let rest for 45 minutes.
3. Progressive Structural Folds: Continue building vertical dough strength around the chocolate inclusions by executing regular stretch-and-folds spaced 45 minutes apart: 1st fold at 10:45 AM, 2nd fold at 11:30 AM, and the 3rd/final fold at 12:15 PM.
4. Final Bulk Proof: Following the final fold, let the dough proof undisturbed at 76–80°F (23–26°C) until you look for a distinct lightness, small surface bubbles, and a 40% to 50% volume expansion.

Step 4 – Tension Shaping & Cold Retard

1. 12:45 PM – Preshaping: Transfer the fermented dough out onto your work surface and dust the top lightly with flour. Using your scraper, flip the dough over so the floured side faces down against the counter. Fold the dough cleanly onto itself so that the flour remains entirely on the outside of the loaf, shape into a loose round ball, and let it rest uncovered on the counter for 30 minutes to relax the gluten mesh.
2. 1:15 PM – Final Shaping: Dust the top with a little whole wheat or bread flour and use a scraper to flip it over floured-side down. Starting at the side closest to you, pull the right two corners of the dough to the left, then fold them up into the half of the dough. Repeat this identical action on the left side. Finally, roll the dough tightly away from you into a smooth, taut, high-tension cylinder or round boule.
3. Basket Transfer & Cold Retard: Place the shaped loaf seam-side up into a prepared proofing basket heavily dusted with flour. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap to trap the moisture. Return the dough to a warm 80°F (27°C) environment for exactly 15 minutes to jumpstart yeast activity, then transfer the covered basket directly into the refrigerator to undergo a slow cold fermentation for 14 to 24 hours.

Step 5 – The High-Heat Dark Sugar Bake

1. The Next Day – Oven Preheating: Place your cast-iron Dutch oven and its lid inside your home oven. Turn the temperature up to 500°F (260°C) and let it preheat thoroughly for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
2. Inversion and Scoring: Remove the cold dough basket directly from the fridge. Invert it cleanly onto a sheet of parchment paper. Use an ultra-sharp knife or scoring lame to cut a clean decorative slash across the crown.
3. The Dutch Oven Bake: Carefully transfer the dough into the smoking hot cast-iron pan using the parchment paper handles. Cover tightly with the lid to lock in the escaping steam and bake at 500°F (260°C) for exactly 15 minutes.
4. The Crisp Finish: Remove the lid to vent the steam, reduce the oven temperature down to 450°F (232°C), and continue baking uncovered for an additional 20 minutes until the crust achieves a deep, dark mahogany finish. Transfer the baked loaf onto a wire rack and let it cool completely for at least 2 hours before slicing.

Nutrition

Calories1870kcalCarbohydrates334gProtein49gFat30gSaturated Fat23gPolyunsaturated Fat3gMonounsaturated Fat1gCholesterol1mgSodium2438mgPotassium1005mgFiber14gSugar53gVitamin A22IUVitamin C1mgCalcium306mgIron6mg

Notes

– **The Non-Negotiable Beer Simmer Stage:** Wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria are extremely sensitive to alcohol; adding raw dark beer straight from the bottle into your flour mix will severely stunt or completely halt your fermentation process, leading to a flat, heavy brick. Simmering the beer gently for 10 minutes over low heat evaporates the volatile alcohol contents completely while keeping the rich water, grains, and malty flavor notes perfectly intact for a safe, active dough rise.

– **Why the Crust Looks Extraordinarily Dark:** This bread naturally bakes into a much darker, deep-mahogany mahogany hue than regular white or whole wheat sourdough. This is not a sign of a burnt loaf; rather, it is the result of accelerated Maillard browning and sugar caramelization. The unfermented sugars from the dark beer reduction combined with the 10% honey inclusion react intensely under the 500°F Dutch oven heat to create a caramelized, highly flavorful, dark crust shield.

– **Strategic Timing of Chocolate Inclusions:** Hard, chunky inclusions like chocolate chips should never be mixed during the initial autolyse or primary gluten-building stages, as their hard edges will physically rip and shear apart fragile, developing gluten strands. Waiting until the dough has achieved robust elasticity, stretching it thin via water lamination, and folding the chocolate chips inward ensures they remain perfectly and evenly suspended without collapsing your crumb structure.

– **The 15-Minute Warm-Up Window:** Returning the freshly shaped dough basket to a warm 80°F (27°C) environment for 15 minutes right before it slides into the cold refrigerator is a clever way to ensure a great oven spring. This short burst of targeted warmth wakes up the wild yeast and allows them to generate a small, early pocket of gas right before the butter fats from the chocolate and the dough elements cool down and firm up for the night.

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