I am looking to recreate an old English style by using bread in my mash (Rye bread). I am looking for a rye flavor by doing something from days gone by. Has anyone else used bread in their mash? I am looking more for flavor more than anything. If you have used any type of bread, have you had issues with it? I also intend to use a lot of hops.
Looking forward to hearing about this one…
Dave
Is it the rye flavor you’re after, or the spicy flavor of the caraway seeds that are often used in rye bread? It doesn’t seem like the bread (without seeds) in the mash would add much character - especially flavor - to the beer. You can get “bread-like” flavors by balancing your malt bill. If it’s the caraway flavor notes that you’re seeking, I think you could just crack or crush some seeds and add them to your kettle as a late or knock-out addition. I don’t know how much seeds to add, but I’d maybe start with 1/2 teaspoon crushed.
You might want to so some searching on brewing kvass. Michael Tonsmeire did an article in BYO back in the December 2010 issue on making it. There’s a Basic Brewing interview with him regarding that article: http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=basic-brewing-radio-2010
A quick search turned up a number of sites with recipes for it, but they look to be more of the dump bread yeast in soda bottles kind of thing, not necessarily homebrewer-focussed articles.