3 cups beer
4 cups white flour
3 cups dark rye flour
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. yeast
1/4 cup molasses or sorghum
Using a heavy stand mixer (KitchenAid for example), mix using a dough hook until smooth. The dough will be very heavy and sticky. Place in a large lidded container and allow to sit out on the counter for 2-3 hours. The dough won't rise a whole lot, but you can see it get full of small bubbles. At this point you can bake the bread or place in the fridge for baking later. The dough does handle a lot better after being chilled and will keep in the fridge up to 2 weeks. When ready to bake, dust the top of the dough with a bit of flour and take half of the dough. Without working the dough too much, lightly flour and quickly for the dough into a flat ball with your hands. Place on a floured board or pie pan, cover with a towel and place in a warm spot for an hour and a half. After an hour and a half, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place a covered cast iron or enameled dutch oven in the oven to heat for about 30 minutes. When well heated, remove from oven, slash the top of the dough quickly and place in the heated dutch oven, cover and return to the oven to bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the cover of the dutch oven and continue baking another 3-15 minutes until the loaf is done and evenly browned. Remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack. Do not slice this bread until completely cooled or it will be gummy. Enjoy!
Variation: sometimes I will substitute 1/2 cup flaxseed meal for an equal amount of the rye flour.
If you are a fan of caraway seeds in your rye bread (I'm not), you can add 2 tsp. of caraway seeds when you mix up the dough.
