Deconstructed Saison Rye

This past weekend my friend Jim Crute, owner and brewmaster at the Lightning Brewery, decided to have a beer bread contest. Now, I’ve baked lots of beer rye breads, mainly from Finland, Germany and Sweden, and one of the challenges I invariably encounter is that I have virtually no control over the beer’s flavor profile, other than making my choice off the shelf. So I decided instead (since I thought it was time to start developing my own breads anyway) to take it from scratch and build a bread to my own tastes using the same ingredients brewers use: malt, hops and flavoring agents.

I settled on a Saison – a category of coriander or orange zest-spiced French farmhouse ales whose interpretation varies from brewer to brewer. My approach was to marry two breads in my collection – a hopped 65% wheat malt bread from Germany and one of my favorite Latvian breads, a 90% rye that uses multiple stages, including a yeasted scald-sponge (opara in Russian) to extract an enormous amount of flavor from its ingredients. I used three kinds of malt: a light Belgian Biscuit 18-27L for its sweetness, a slightly darker Belgian Aromatic 20L for its diastatic activity and pronounced malt flavors, and American Crystal 120L, a very dark roast that contributed pronounced coffee and chocolate notes. I also added an infusion of hops to frame the sweetness and a healthy dose of coriander for its citrus notes.

My Deconstructed Saison Rye turned out exactly the way I wanted it to, with a deep complexity and multiple layers of flavor that offered a nice balance of sweet, sour, bitter, and astringent against the sweet spiciness of the rye. I’m not going to say where I ended up in the competition; I will say, however, that people whose opinions I value described it as”comples,” “highly sophisticated,” and “not for everyone,” which is more than enough for me.

Sponge:

Mix the sponge ingredients by hand until incorporated into a very stiff dough, cover and ferment at room temperature (68°-72°F/20°-22°C) 3½-4 hours. The sponge will have a clean sour smell and will have doubled in volume.

Scald:

In a separate container mix the flour, water and coriander by hand into a stiff paste and let stand 4-5 minutes. Use a blender or spice grinder to grind the beer malt into a fine powder, sift to remove the husks, then stir it into the scald. Cover and place in a warm (145°-150°F/63°-65°C) oven for 3 hours. During that time, the scald will loosen considerably and become very sweet and fragrant.

Opara (Yeasted Scald-Sponge):

Combine the flour, yeast  sponge and scald, in the mixer bowl and mix by hand until blended. Preheat the oven to 100°F/38°C, then turn it off. Cover the scald sponge and ferment in the oven, reheating to 100°F/38°C hourly, until doubled in bulk and fragrant with a sweet-sour smell, 3-5 hours. The longer the ferment, the strong the smell.

Hops Tea:

Combine the hops pellets and water and let steep at room temperature 1-2 hours.

Final Dough:

Combine the final dough ingredients in the mixer and use the dough hook to mix at low (KA2) speed until the dough comes together in a stiff mass and starts gathering around the hook, 5-6 minutes. Cover and ferment in the warm oven, reheating to 100°F/38°C hourly, until doubled in bulk, 2-3 hours

Turn the dough, which will be firm and only slightly sticky, onto a well-floured work surface, knead back to its original volume and shape into a boule. Place the boule seam side up into a floured bread form or linen-lined basket, cover and proof in the warm oven until the dough has expanded to about 1½ times its original volume and cracks appear on the surface.

Preheat the oven to 535°F/280°C with the baking surface in the middle. Flip the bread onto a well-floured peel, if using a baking stone, or onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake with steam 12 minutes, then remove the steam pan, lower the temperature to 410°F/210°C and bake until the loaf thumps when tapped with a finger and the internal temperature is at least 198°F/92°C, 40-45 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool 10-12 hours before slicing.

Baker’s Percentages: