Six ingredients, no kneading, no proving, and no yeast. The carbonation and the baking powder do the lifting.

One loaf, about an hour and three minutes start to finish.

Sift the flour, or spoon it in

The source is emphatic about this and it is right, if slightly forcefully expressed.

Scooping a measuring cup directly into a flour canister compacts the flour, and a compacted cup can hold twenty percent more than a properly measured one. In a recipe with three cups of flour, that is most of an extra cup.

Too much flour in a batter this simple gives you a dense heavy loaf, which is where the complaints about it coming out like a brick originate.

Sift it, or spoon it into the cup and level it off. Better still, weigh it: three cups is around 360 grams.

The beer is the leavening, partly

One twelve ounce can, and the carbonation does real work.

Carbon dioxide dissolved in the beer comes out of solution as the batter warms, expanding and lifting it. That happens alongside the baking powder rather than instead of it.

The beer also brings yeast flavour and a faint bitterness that gives the loaf its character. A very hoppy beer will taste noticeably bitter in the finished bread; a mild lager gives a softer result.

Use it cold and mix quickly. A flat beer that has been open on the counter has lost most of its carbonation and the loaf will be denser.

Butter over the top, or mixed in

Half a cup melted, poured over the batter in the pan.

Poured over, it soaks down through the top and creates a crunchy, buttery crust that is the distinctive feature of this loaf. That is what the recipe intends.

Mixed into the batter instead, it distributes through the crumb and gives a softer, more conventional bread crust. The source offers both and both are good.

A quarter cup does the job if half a cup seems excessive, which the recipe acknowledges.

Put a sheet pan underneath

On the shelf below, to catch butter that drips.

Half a cup of melted butter poured over a loaf pan will find its way over the edge, and butter on an oven floor smokes and burns.

This is the sort of instruction that sounds fussy until the first time you skip it.

Self-rising flour changes the recipe

If you use it, omit both the baking powder and the salt.

Self-rising flour already contains both, in roughly the proportions this recipe calls for. Adding more baking powder on top gives a metallic taste and a loaf that rises fast and collapses.

An hour at 375F

Then out of the pan and cooled at least fifteen minutes.

The cooling matters more in a quick bread than people expect. The crumb is still setting when it comes out of the oven, and cutting immediately gives you a gummy texture that resolves as it cools.

Non-alcoholic versions

The source recommends adding a packet of dry active yeast or two teaspoons of bread machine yeast if using a non-alcoholic beverage.

That is because non-alcoholic beers and sodas vary in carbonation, and some flat substitutes leave the loaf relying on baking powder alone. The yeast provides insurance.

Sparkling water works and gives a plainer loaf with no beer flavour. Non-alcoholic beer is the closer substitute.

Serving

With soup is the classic pairing and it is a good one, since a hearty crumb holds up to being dipped. <p>Six to eight servings. It is best on the day it is made and it firms up noticeably by day two, at which point toasting it is the answer. ## Which beer to use A mild lager or pale ale gives the most balanced loaf. Stout and porter give a darker, maltier bread that suits winter soups. Very hoppy IPAs turn noticeably bitter as the loaf bakes and the flavour concentrates.

If you would not drink it, the loaf will not improve it.

Additions

A cup of grated cheddar and a tablespoon of chopped rosemary folded through the batter makes a considerably more interesting loaf. Add them after the beer, with as little mixing as possible.