History
Al Truistic’s History page
Dave Munro started making bread again after his Mom passed away and he found the bread machine she used to make bread with about 10 years before. He was surprised when he opened the lid to find that his Grandmother’s Oatmeal Molasses recipe he and his Mom had adapted for the bread machine was inside. He looked around the kitchen and saw he had all the ingredients except yeast so he ran out and picked some up. He made the first loaf of Oatmeal Molasses bread he had in a long time, a bread he remembered making with his Mom when he was a child.
As this new found bread making experience was rekindled he remembered some beer bread he’d tasted when he was in his twenties. He knew he didn’t have the recipe as the friend wouldn’t give it up so he went on a mission to craft a beer bread recipe. Dave had only drank craft brewed beers since the early days of the craft brewing industry in Ontario so he decided to use only Craft Brewers delicious brews. Ontario Craft Brewers, like craft brewers everywhere, were brewing some interesting beers, ales and other brews like gruits.
When he started researching how to make bread, styles and ingredients he found that it was suggested to use weight measure in grams rather than imperial measurements like cups and teaspoons. One reason for this was that it would be easier to double and triple the recipe. Humidity plays a role in how much flour is used in a bread recipe that’s why each recipe he found when he was developing his stated an imperial amount of flour and a second amount. The second amount is then used if the dough is too wet during the first knead the recipes stated.
One of the first bread David made was adapted from his Grandmothers Oatmeal Molasses recipe. It was a darker bread because the molasses so he wondered what brew he could use when it hit him, Stout. He took the bread machine recipe which made a small, one pound loaf and measured out the imperial amounts before weighing them in grams on his kitchen scale. In order to make a bigger loaf, about twice the size of the original recipe he then doubled all the ingredients for the larger scale recipe. He swapped out the molasses and added stout but since molasses is a lot sweeter that stout he knew he had to add more food for the yeast to make the dough rise well. Version 1.0 of the Oatmeal Stout bread turned out almost perfect while version 2.0 turned out perfect!
Dave started to work on how to get more flavour of the beer into the bread and he also considered not using yeast. He started experimenting with sour dough styled breads. He soon found the right recipes to get some pretty good loaves but this took a lot of experimentation and was becoming costly. He was able to get some of the dregs left over from a local brewers fermentation vat, slurry, and tried to work with that but found that the breads were not edible as they were far too hoppy. His experimentation with sour dough style breads was put to rest with the intension to resume experiments at a later date.
Dave went back to crafting breads with yeast and to date has crafted thirteen unique and different beer bread recipes that use a range of styles as well as seasonal brews like Maple Ale and Pumpkin Ale. At least six of the recipes are ready to scale up.
Once a couple of the breads were acceptable Dave started sharing with friends and family. After tasting them they told him he should be selling them. Dave started considering starting up a business baking and selling his breads. The name and primary goal of the business became clear. He crafted two of the recipes into Do It Yourself Craft Beer Bread kits.
Having the Do It Yourself kits ready the day Ontario shut down the first time the pandemic took its toll as Dave could not implement the plan he had worked for more than a year developing. Savings took a huge hit as the business was not eligible for any small business support grants offered by federal or provincial governments so he closed up the shop he’d work hard in opening.
Dave is still producing his DIY kits and selling at markets.