Day One

       My name is Phil, and I'm a baker.  Being my first blog, I'm totally improvising here.  How about a little background?  I got my start in baking working at Safeway.  I was there for five years, until I got bored and enrolled at Vancouver Community College in their Baking and Pastry Arts Patisserie program. Graduating in spring of 2012, I got a job at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Center right out of school.  I worked with a guy named Henry, who introduced me to the over-night fermentation process.  I worked with Henry for the next year and a half, and learned so much from him.  His techniques helped shape me into the baker I am today.  After the Convention Center I worked at a little pizza joint called Nook for about a month, before relocating to Kamloops.  Now I work in the meat department of Costco.  Ironic, eh? I keep telling people all I need to do is learn how to make candles and I'll be set.
 

     So between the monotony of work and my lack of mental stimulation, this blog is the result.  I enjoy writing, and beer, and baking, and baking with beer, so why not put it all together in a lovely little package on the internet to share?  Exactly. The first time I put beer in my dough, I was a few wobbly-pops in and figured, 'Beer and pretzels go good together, so why not put beer IN my pretzels!?!'.  After some experimenting I found a good ratio of beer to water, and rolled with it.  The progression was natural.  Guiness Rye with caraway seed, Granville Island Lager pizza dough, and Grolsch Pretzels were the beginning of this mad scientist's endeavours.
 

     Anyway, today I have started three different levain cultures (liquid, stiff, rye), a biga, and a pate fermentee.  The levain starters will not be ready for use until some time next week when they are active and strong enough to be used in dough.  The biga will be used for an Onion Parmesan French Loaf with caraway seed and an Olive Fougasse.  The pate fermentee will be used for a Blue Cheese Rye loaf.  My water to beer ratio is 50/50.  I used 100% beer in my pretzels once and it didn't work out so good. The dough consistency was not very elastic and more like putty(?).  The Guiness Rye is the only dough I've done with 100% beer and worked out.


     In the rye starter I used Cannery Brewing Blackberry Porter because I think the combinations of hops and blackberry would compliment a dark rye nicely.  The other two cultures I used Stiegl Grapefruit Lager because the citrus and tangy notes of the beer would be a great addition to the standard sourdough flavour.
I'll just have to wait a day or two to see if and how it affects the fermentation process.  Then if the culture develops as it should, we'll see what the effect on dough activity and flavour is.


     In the biga I used Noble Pig Brewhouse Peppered Belgian Ale. Should compliment the Onion and Parmesan loaf nicely, along with the Olive Fougasse.  The pate fermentee will be used in the Blue Cheese Rye, so I used the Blackberry Porter. I'll let you know tomorrow how it turned out.
 
     I'm doing this for fun and experimentation so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on details about the formulas other than the beer flavour and ratios.  If you have any questions, ask.