What is sourdough?

Sourdough is bread made with a traditional wild yeast leaven - the way bread has been made for thousands of years. It’s delicious and easy to digest.

RedBeard’s authentic sourdoughs contain no baker’s yeast, added gluten, preservatives or dough improvers. Apart from our traditional leaven, our only ingredients are certified organic flour, salt and water.

Around 6000 years ago, the Egyptians discovered how to make bread rise using natural fermentation. Since then, bakers have kept a brew of fermenting flour and water known as a leaven or baker’s wort.

RedBeard’s wort was created around two decades ago from wild yeast and lactose bacteria harvested from potato skins – a traditional Scottish technique. The yeast and bacteria produce bubbles of carbon dioxide which make dough rise when trapped in its stretchy gluten structure.

The misleading term ‘sourdough’ was coined during the Alaskan goldrush when miners carried their worts in warm saddlebags, giving off a pungent, sour odour. Today, ‘sourdough’ refers to bread made with a traditional wort, but good sourdoughs are never actually sour. A sour loaf results from letting the dough ferment for too long.

Unlike bread made with commercial baker’s yeast and dough improvers, sourdough’s complex fermentation makes it nutritious and easier to digest, with outstanding texture and flavour. Learn how to do it yourself in a sourdough baking workshop.

RedBeard’s sourdoughs are handmade simply from certified organic flours, salt and water, and baked in the deep, even heat of our historic woodfired oven. Take a tour of RedBeard Historic Bakery to learn more.