This my third round of sourdough bread and my first from this starter. I got a starter going a few months ago, made two loaves of bread that wound up way too dense, and neglected the starter to the point where it was best to throw it away and start over.

This starter was quite a bit more active than my previous one. After just three days of feeding, it was doubling in size in a matter of hours and bubbling like crazy. I made this batch of bread as much as an alternative to throwing away starter as for the bread itself. It turned out quite nicely, though I did wind up cooking it for about twice as long as the recipe called for. Maybe my oven thermometer is off, but 30-45 minutes at 375 was nowhere near enough time. I don't have much experience with sourdough, so I don't know if flavors vary from starter to starter, but mine had just the quintessential sour flavor I was looking for. The crust was hard and crunch and the inside soft and gooey. In short, this batch of bread was definitely a worthwhile way to keep from throwing starter away.

The recipe I used, both for the starter and the bread, can be found here. I followed it pretty closely, but I didn't use any whole wheat flower, as I didn't have any, and I had to cook the bread for much longer before the internal temperature was high enough and it sounded hollow on the bottom.

My second beer was a step up in complexity, both in process and flavor, from my first, a simple Oatmeal Stout that I might talk about later. This time, it was a Saison, named in honor of Enzo, my poodle who was some where around 13 when he died this Fall. Saison is a farmhouse style of beer from southern Belgium traditionally brewed in the winter to be consumed in the warmer summer months.

Mine was made with a bit of orange peel and coriander in addition to the expected hops and grains, and the fruity, acidic citrus notes come through nicely, as does a mild pepperyness. Out of the keg, this has a thick head that sticks around and leaves good lacing around the glass as it subsides with time. With all that nice bubbly carbonation, you get the oranges when you stick your nose in the glass, along with some distinct but not dominant floral aromas from the hops. The beer itself feels thick but not to the point of becoming syrupy, even after it is left out and looses its carbonation. It has matched well with virtually every food I've tried it with and is pictured here with a hunk of fresh sourdough bread, which it compliments particularly nicely.