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Making bread together: a brewery and a bakery
June 12, 2010
Editor@montanaliving.com
By Keila Szpaller
Brewmaster Tim O’Leary pulls the draft and watches cold amber ale froth into a glass. Meanwhile, on the other side of the warehouse wall, head baker Leif Bjelland slides a fine blade across formed dough, scoring the spongy substance that will bake into a hearty loaf of bread.
The businesses, Kettlehouse Brewing Company and Le Petit Outre, not only share this old green warehouse in Missoula, but also grain. Occasionally, in fact, they use the same batch of barley to create their beer and bread.
At Kettlehouse, the Montana-grown barley is first soaked in a 434-gallon tub making a mash from which sugars are extracted. The by-product, a sugar-water called “wort,” drains out of the mash and ferments with other ingredients to become beer. A local farmer then collects the “spent” grain as feed for his cows. But when head baker Bjelland decided to bake a spent grain sourdough, he asked if some barley could be routed to his side of the warehouse. O’Leary agreed. In fact, the brewer was pleased with the baker’s product: “The barley spent grain gives [the bread] a really nice texture, and a little bit of the sweetness from the sugar in the barley still lingers.” True enough—inside a crackling crust, the chewy sprouted grain riddles the sourdough interior and gives the bread the subtly sweet aftertaste.
The French-style bread, called a “levain,” is one of a handful of specialty breads Bjelland sells on rotation at his Farmer’s Market booth downtown on Saturdays from May 15 to Oct. 20. It costs $4.
The idea to share barley isn’t novel, explains Bjelland—“It’s a common bake-brew thing”—but the collaboration suits both the brewer’s and baker’s philosophy to re-use before recycling. “It’s a way to keep [the grain] in the food cycle,” says Bjelland.
Customers often patronize both award-winning businesses in one shopping-spree. So, if you order up a pint, don’t mind the breadcrumbs on the counter.
Le Petit Outre
129 South Fourth West
Missoula, Mont. 59801
(406) 543-3311
Kettlehouse Brewing Company
602 Myrtle
Missoula, Mont. 59801
(406) 728-1660
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