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There are recipes for beer bread online.

The recipes I've seen have no water in them. Instead beer is used in place of water (and yeast).

Is such a bread Hamotzi (we're not discussing a case where enough is eaten that Hamotzi would be made even if the bread is not Hamotzi)?

Please bring sources that discuss this.

Tosafot on Avoda Zarah 31b, D"H V’tarvayhu may be relevant to this question. In the second answer, Tosafot says that the grain in the beer is inconsequential in relation to the water, both when it comes to the blessing made and with regards to Bishul Akum. (An article from the OU brings this Tosafot and says that the Pri Chadash extends this to coffee and tea as well).

Perhaps we can extend this to our case as well. The water in the beer is the main thing, and therefore this bread is Hamotzi. On the other hand, perhaps you could argue that Tosafot is talking about the making of the beer, but once it is already beer, it is now considered beer and not water.

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  • Isn't beer water?
    – Double AA ♦
    Sep 1, 2013 at 20:56
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    You should consider asking if such a dough would require challah to be separated from it.
    – Double AA ♦
    Sep 1, 2013 at 20:58
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    @DoubleAA: beer was once water. Is it still halachically considered water?
    – Menachem
    Sep 1, 2013 at 22:43
  • Beer is water in the same sense that coffee is -- it started out as water infused with additives with the whole thing being heated and then filtered.
    – Monica Cellio
    Nov 20, 2013 at 15:32

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Tif'eret Yosef OC 14 asks your specific question, concluding that the "bread" would be considered pat habaah bikisanin and not get a hamotzi under ordinary circumstances. (I do not expect this ruling is universally agreed upon. Compare, for instance, his reasoning to Aruch haShulchan OC 158:6 and note the ill-defined boundary in Mishna Berura 168 sk 33. See also Daas Torah (Maharsham) to OC 168:7.)

Additionally, if no water is added (assuming your beer is really 100% beer) then there may be halachik issues with separating and disposing of Challah (SA YD 329:9-10, though note Pitchei Teshuva ad loc.).

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