Meadowlark Brewing - Scottish Ale with Smoked Gouda

February 24, 2025

Drawing by Vince Long © 2025

Meadowlark Brewing opened in Billings just a few years ago in a large, purpose-built facility located across the street from Zoo Montana.  It is a brewery and a restaurant with meeting rooms and play area for small children.  Originally from Sidney, Montana, they expanded here and seem to be doing pretty well.  

I had one of their beers at a beerfest in 2018 and thought it would be fun to try them at their original brewery.  So, a friend and I flew on Cape Air to the Sydney airport and walked from there to the brewery.  The flight was beautiful and the walk was nice, about a mile.  The beer and the food were great.

Meadowlark Brewing is also a donor to the Yellowstone Rim Runner's annual Run Turkey Run race held on Thanksgiving morning in downtown Billings.

When I perused their beer selection, I decided to pick the Ole Gus Scottish Ale to build a bread around.  While making a bread with just the beer would be pretty easy, I wanted to add something to make a little bit special.  I thought about food pairings and the malty, semi-sweetness of a Scottish ale goes well with a smoked cheese so that was it.  It would be a cheese bread made with Ole Gus and smoked gouda.

The flour mix I use is my standard, a blend of bread flour, whole wheat, and a bit of rye.  This brings a bit of complexity into the flavor and works well with most recipes plus, the Ole Gus is made with rye so that is just another reason they should play well together.   I also decided to make this with standard yeast rather than a sourdough as I wanted the sweetness from the ale to step forward.

Ingredients

Makes 2 loaves.

2-1/2 cups (21.85 ounce) (622 grams)  Meadowlark Brewing Ole Gus Scottish Ale at room temperature

2 teaspoon kosher salt

2-1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2-1/2 cup (12.4 ounce) (350 grams) white bread flour (Montana Wheat is the best)

1 cup (4.8 ounce) (135 grams) whole wheat flour

1/4 cup (1.4 ounce) (40 grams) rye flour

3 cups (12 ounce) (340 grams) smoked gouda cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

4 cups (20 ounce) (566 grams) additional bread flour, approximate

Procedure

Place the ale, salt, yeast, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl.  Stir until dissolved.

Add the 2-1/2 cups of bread flour, the whole wheat flour, and rye flour.  Stir either by hand or by mixer for a few minutes and then let it stand for 5 minutes.

Start adding the additional bread flour stirring until it becomes thick enough to begin kneading.  Either knead by hand or use a dough hook in stand mixer.  You can also use the stretch and fold method.  These are described on the first page of this site. 

Just before the kneading is complete, add the cubed cheese.  Knead until it is evenly distributed.

Spray the dough with a bit of oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Set aside and let it ferment.  The dough should double in size.  I let mine go for about 2-1/2 hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface.  Punch it down to degas it and cut into two equal amounts.  Shape each into your desired type of loaf.  I did mine as rounds and placed them on sheets of parchment to proof.  You can also shape them as traditional loaves and place each in an oiled loaf pan.  Let them proof until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.  I am baking mine in a convection oven with the bread placed inside a Dutch oven which is preheated in the oven as well.  When it is up to temperature, slash the top of the loaf, place it in the Dutch oven, and bake for 16 minutes with the lid on.  Remove the lid and bake for another 16 minutes.  If doing regular loaf pans, you might try baking at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

When the bread is done, cool it on a wire rack before slicing.

Illustrations

Kneading is almost done.  The dough looks smooth rather than shaggy.  Time to add the cheese.

The cheese is incorporated.

The dough is done fermenting and ready to shape.

In the proofing stage.

Into the Dutch oven to bake.

Halfway through the baking.

The finished loaves.

The crumb.

By All Means - Pink Slip Raspberry Bread with Chocolate

February 11, 2025

Drawing By Vince Long

By All Means is a gastropub and brewery located on the south end of 24 Street West in Billings.  I would define it as “upscale” in that their food offerings are unique and their beer selections run from the familiar to the exotic.  The brewery is related to the recently closed Uberbrew and the beer I selected for this recipe, Pink Slip, was actually a standard at Uberbrew.  It’s great that this one made the move.

The beer is soft, tangy and somewhere between a fruit beer and a sour with just the right amount of raspberry.  When I thought about its profile and how I might marry that with a sourdough bread, it didn’t take me long to conclude that chocolate would balance the tang with a bit of bitter-sweetness. 

I wanted to include raspberries but this posed a challenge.  The fruit is so delicate that it might disappear in the kneading process.  I discovered that a freeze-dried version was available and when I went on a hunt to obtain them I came across some beautiful fresh, organic ones so I decided to include both.  I added the freeze-dried berries, slightly crushed, at the end of the kneading process and folded the fresh ones in before I set the dough aside to ferment.

Ingredients

1-2/3 cup (14 ounce) (400 grams) sourdough starter, see Note below *

2-1/3 cup (1 pound, 3-1/2 ounce) (550 grams) By All Means Pink Slip beer at room temperature 

4 cups (1 pound, 2 ounce) (513 grams) Montana Wheat bread flour

1/2 cup (3-1/4 ounce) (90 grams) whole wheat flour

1/2 cup (2 ounce) (50 grams) rye flour

2 teaspoons kosher salt (use a little less if using regular salt)

1-1/4 cup (6.8 ounce) (200 grams) additional bread flour

1 cup (3/4 ounce) (170 grams) freeze-dried raspberries, whole

1/2 cup (2-1/2 ounce) (70 grams) fresh raspberries, whole

1 cup (6 ounce) (170 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Note*

If you do not have a sourdough starter, you can substitute it with

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup water (or beer)

2 teaspoons instant yeast

Combine the three ingredients.  It’s best to let it stand for a bit but you could use it right away.

Yield: 2 loaves

Procedure

Place the sourdough starter (or its alternative) in a bowl and add the beer.  Stir to combine.  Add the first addition of the bread flour, the whole wheat and rye flours, and the salt.  Stir to combine either with a spoon or with the paddle on a stand mixer.  Once everything is wetted, let it stand for 5-10 minutes for the flours to absorb the liquid.

Start adding the additional flour a little at a time and when the dough begins to stiffen, either turn it out onto a floured board to knead by hand or switch to the dough hook of the mixer.  You could also use the stretch and fold method described on the first page.  Knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, adding the additional flour as necessary.  

Slightly crush the freeze dried raspberries and cut the fresh ones into quarters.

Just before kneading is completed, add the freeze-dried raspberries and the chocolate chips. Knead until they are evenly distributed. Stretch the dough out on a board and spread the fresh raspberries out on it.  Roll and fold the dough gently to incorporate the berries.

Place the dough in a bowl, give it a small spray of oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set it aside to ferment.  For mine, using a sourdough starter, I let it ferment for about 4 hours.  The dough had doubled in that time.  If using yeast it might happen sooner.

Form the dough into two rounds.  Set each on a sheet of parchment paper and give the tops a small spray of oil.  Cover them with plastic wrap and let proof.  I let mine go for a bit over an hour.

Preheat your oven to 425°F.  

I bake in a Dutch oven, one loaf at a time, and have the Dutch oven preheated.  I slash the top of the loaf, lift it with the parchment, and drop it into the Dutch oven.  Cover the Dutch oven with its lid and bake for 17 minutes.  At that point, remove the lid and bake for another 17 minutes.  Remove the loaf and let cool on a wire rack.  Repeat the process for the second loaf.

You can bake them in a conventional oven, side by side, on a baking sheet.  I would use 375°F and bake for about 40 minutes.

Illustrations

The freeze-dried raspberries prior to crushing.

The fresh berries spread on the dough.

The dough ready to ferment.

The dough, fermented, split in two before forming into balls for proofing.

A load halfway through the baking with the lid on the Dutch oven just removed.  Notice how the loaf has expanded due to “oven spring.”

Freshly baked.

An interior view of the crumb.