Sandwich loaf

My second ever sandwich loaf, which was pretty fantastic overall. There was a slight bitterness which went away with a little salt, I think I already know what caused this.

So this started by making some quick 1hr pizza dough (Brian Lagerstrom's recipe) for dinner on Sunday night. His recipe uses beer to help get some of the complex yeasty flavors in a short amount of time. Well, after making the pizzas, I had about 150g of beer left, and I didn't want to throw it out (I don't drink beer, I'm a cider guy)… So I decided to make a poolish with it (100% hydration with KAF APF, so 150g flour in this case, pinch of instant yeast), and then I kicked the can down the road and I thought I'd figure out what to use it for on Monday.

I decided on trying a sandwich loaf. So, I based my recipe on Sally's baking addiction (https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/sandwich-bread/) because I had heard good things. My changes were obviously adding the poolish, and that being made with APF. I used bread flour for the rest. I subtracted the beer amount from the water. I also added 1 tbsp of dough conditioner and 1/4 tsp ascorbic acid (they do amazing things to the Banh mi recipe that goes around this sub, so I wanted to employ them here). I ended up needing a bit more flour than the recipe called for. I probably added another 20-30g once I had it in the mixer, after mixing for like 10 minutes. It was super sticky, so I knew it needed more.

I think I should have reduced the amount of yeast called for. The beer based poolish was crazy. My first rise only took 30 minutes and not the full hour. I decided to punch it down and do a second bulk proof before shaping. That again only took 30 minutes. Then I preshaped my loaf (fold+roll+ corner tuck sort of method), and let it rise again. Here, I let it go too long. I got pulled into an unexpectedly long work call and let it go for like 45-50 minutes. It had climbed over 2" past the top of my bread loaf pan (le creuset) at that point. I just baked it anyway.

So, I think the bitterness was from a combination of over proofing and also inherently from the beer. Texture was 10/10. Flavor was good, with a pinch of salt added to any slice.

I'm fairly new to bread baking (started in January). It's a fun hobby, and you get tasty things out of it.