The many doughs baked into pizzas in Steve's WFO and my two beer doughs, made with Pizzeria flour

I had a great time at Steve’s beer brewer’s picnic yesterday and my experimental doughs did turn out okay when baked into pizzas, but I don’t know if I would try the same doughs again.


I guess I didn’t study enough about adding beer to dough. I didn’t realize that the dough would be drier, so I guess I should have either added more beer, or water, to the formulations I used. I could tell when opening the two beer doughballs that the dough did feel drier than a regular 60% hydration with Pizzeria flour, but the dough balls did open okay. The first beer dough pizza I made was with the Elysian Bete Blance beer. That pizza also had some chili oil that I had made with chili I purchased at the Asian store. I don’t know why the dough made with the V8 beer had a darker rim crust after baking.

Marco’s dough did work okay to when made into a round pizza. It was very light and had a good taste. I gave one dough ball to Steve to see if he wanted to try it in a pan. The other dough ball is still in my fridge and has a big bubble on top this morning.

Many of the people that attended the beer brewer’s picnic did make their own pizzas in Steve’s WFO and some brought their own dough. Others used Steve’s dough. Frank brought his crazy dough that he turned into really good pizzas. I liked Frank’s shirt that said flour child. Frank rolls out his dough, then hand stretches it and forms edges on it. I still don’t understand how Frank just cuts off a piece of dough from the big dough mass and it doesn’t give him any stretch-back. Some of his pizzas he par-baked, then added a lot of toppings. Steve’s one neighbor brought his Reinhart doughs and those pizzas were really good baked in Steve’s WFO. There were no rules on how anyone made the pizzas and it is fun to watch how everyone makes their pizzas. There were a lot of pizzas made that I didn’t get pictures of. Many people brought their own dressings for the pizzas. I really like the apple, walnut pizza.

There were many kinds of pizzas that came out of Steve’s WFO with many people making them. It become cool when the sun was starting to set.

It was a beautiful day to have a home brew brewers picnic and I got to try many different beers that I had never tasted before. Thanks Steve for inviting me! I ate way too much pizza and other foods.  I had so much fun watching everyone make their different styles of pizzas.  There were many different levels of pizza makers at the party.  Frank makes the dough for the Fridge Pizzeria in Lancaster, Pa and also makes the flatbread pizzas.

http://beerfridgelancaster.com/ and the Fridges Flatbread Pizzas http://beerfridgelancaster.com/pizza  Frank also homebrews many kinds of beer.

I think a WFO can bake almost any type of pizza well.  All the homebrews we drank were also very good.  
Norma

First set of pictures are of the beer dough made with Elysian Bete Blanche beer.  This beer dough did have chili oil added after the bake.  The chili oil was just made with chili's from the Asian store.  The chili oil was spicy, but not too hot.

Beer Dough Pizza from the homebrewed V8 beer Steve gave me.

Marco's 75% hydration dough pizza made with 50/50 Power Flour and Mondako Flour

Various other pizzas made and some of the various pizza makers.  Also other pictures of Steve's beer brewing club picnic and pizza party.

Papa Gino's clone pizza attempt with Pete-zza's help

The Papa Gino’s clone dough ball was left at room temperature to warm-up for about 3 hrs. By my estimates and the poppy seed trick the dough ball didn’t triple in volume over the 3 day fermentation and the 3 hr. warm-up. There were a few speckles on the dough ball, but not as many as last week.


8.7 grams of the three cheese blend (Foremost Farms part-skim mozzarella, AMPI mild cheddar and Romano cheese) were used on the Papa Gino’s pizza along with 6 oz. of sauce (my regular sauce at market, because I didn’t bring a can of 6-in-1s to market) and a sprinkling of Greek oregano in the cheese blend. I got so tied up in weighing the cheese blend and weighing the sauce out with Steve, that I forgot to use the 5.5 grams of corn meal to incorporate into the Papa Gino’s clone dough ball when opening the dough ball. I only remembered that after I slide the pie into the oven. As soon as the pizza was set in the oven I tried to gently sprinkle some corn meal on the rim and also sprinkled corn meal on the hearth. Darn, I would have to have forgotten the corn meal. Sorry, I messed-up on the cornmeal. The Papa Gino’s pizza attempt weighed 1 lb. 12.7 ounces right out of the oven. The edge bottom rim crust got a little too dark, but it sure didn’t taste that way when eating the pizza.

The Papa Gino’s attempt was very good though, even without my remembering to add the cornmeal at the right time. The amount of cheese and the blend of cheeses really gave this pie a good taste and the crumb texture was very good with using the Kyrol and KAAP blend. The crumb texture was much better than my other attempts. The crumb texture was much more tender than my other attempts. Steve also agreed that the crumb texture was better than my other attempts. I think I am beginning to really enjoy a Papa Gino’s clone pizza, even if it is a little thicker. The skin was stretched out a little over 14” to compensate incase the pizza skin did shrink back a little when sliding it into the oven. I also want to post again that I never really tasted a Papa Gino’s pizza though, so I really don’t know if I was anywhere close to a real Papa Gino’s pizza. The crust also had a very good taste even if the crumb wasn’t airy. This Papa Gino’s clone pizza almost reminded me of a thin Greek style pizza.

Norma

Mack's pizza attempt with 3 month old aged white cheddar and oven spring with no pressing on the dough

The Mack’s attempt went well on Tuesday. I decided not to really press on the dough while opening it to see what would happen. I had wanted to try that for awhile to see if there would be more oven spring. The Mack’s attempt yesterday did have a lot more oven spring when opening the dough differently. I didn’t really try to form a rim while opening the dough and opened it normally like I open my Lehmann dough pizzas. I find it interesting that the same dough I have been using for a few attempts (Peter’s formulation) does get a nice and airy crust and a different texture in the rim. Some of the rim was more open than other areas though. The taste of the crust also was very good from the longer cold ferment. The whole pizza was very good in Steve’s, Lorie’s and my opinions. The taste of the Nasonville 3 month old aged cheddar was also very good on the baked pizza. The Nasonville 3 month old cheddar baked well and did oil off a lot. Steve and I used 10 ounces of the Nasonville mild white 3 month old aged cheddar on this Mack’s attempt. Using the Nasonville 3 month old aged white cheddar the pizza almost had the right taste in the cheese, but a little more tang could have been there. I really don’t know how to get that little bit more tang. We also used 8 ounces of the Great Value tomato paste with added ingredients for the sauce. The doctored-up Great Value tomato paste did taste very similar to a real Mack’s pizza.


If anyone is interested, this is how Steve made the doctored-up Great Value tomato paste sauce.

1 12 oz. can of Great Value tomato paste from Walmart

12 ounces of water

½ tsp. black pepper

3 teaspoons dried Greek oregano from Bova

¼ teaspoon Kosher salt

Steve did a great job of doctoring-up the Great Value tomato paste. He added ingredients a little at a time and we tasted the sauce different times. I would have never thought using the Great Value tomato paste doctored-up would have made a pizza sauce that was that good. I am not sure, but maybe the cheddar cheese also helped. I have to test this sauce on another regular market pizza at a future date with regular mozzarellas. Steve also couldn’t believe how good his sauce tasted on the Mack’s attempt. I would imagine if the sauce would sit for a day it would have a little bit of a different flavor.

Again, no VWG could be tasted in the crust in any way.

I would be satisfied eating this Mack’s attempt any day with the same dough formulation, the sauce and the cheddar. Steve also did agree.

I sure don’t know, but maybe more cheddar could be added with less sauce. I am not sure how to go about making that different to see what would happen. I don’t know if anyone can tell if more cheese is applied and less sauce is applied to a real Mack’s pizza with all the videos that have been posted on this thread.

The weight of the fresh baked Mack’s attempt right out of the oven was 2 lb. 2.2 ounces. In a few minutes the weight of the Mack’s attempt fell to 2 lb. 2.0 ounces.

Norma