This ryebread recipe is for three very large breads. All quantities
are approximate measures. The bread baking takes roughly a weekend
so it's a good idea to do large quantities.

On the 1st day:
Sourdough from last time you baked,
0.1-0.2 litre live youghurt
0.1-0.2 litre buttermilk
1 pint of Guinness
2-3 spoonfull salt
2 kg chopped ryegrains 
0.2 kg sunflower seed
0.2 kg linseed
0.4 kg strong wholemeal flour
0.4 kg strong white flour
1.5 - 2 kg rye flour
adequate water as necessary

On the 2nd day:
1 pint of Guinness
4 spoonfull syrup
1.5 - 2 kg rye flour
adequate water if necessary
sesame seeds

Instructions:

Day 1:

Chop the rye grains in a blender or foodprocessor for 2 or 3 minutes 
if they aren't chopped when you buy them. This will make it easier 
for them to soak up the liquids. Good thing to have all the liquids 
luke warm before mixing them together. Mix the grains, seeds, salt 
and sour dough together with the beer, youghurt and buttermilk in a huge 
bowl. Use a whisk to homogenize it into a grey-brown soup. Add water so
that the whole lot would completely fill up one of your 3 baking tins.

Now add the white flour and the wholemeal flour. Mix it with a big 
wooden spoon until you get blisters in your palm. 
Start adding the rye flour and keep mixing for another 
10 minutes. The dough should now have the consistency of a very 
thick porridge and it's important that it hasn't become too dry. 
Otherwise the rye grains won't be able to swell up in the liquid and they'll 
remain undigestable and break your teeth. Add more rye flour or water to 
achieve the right consistency and don't even think about kneading the dough
with your hands (it would ultimately end up under your armpits!)
Cover the bowl with a lid and let the dough rest in a 
warm place (like and airing cupboard) for 24 hours to let it raise.


Day 2:

First observe that the dough actually has raised. If it hasn't, your 
sour dough from last time might not have survived in which case 
you may want to resuscitate your dough by adding some live yeast to 
it, but no more than a teaspoon though.

Dissolve the syrup (and yeast if necessary) in the lukewarm guinness 
and pour it into to bowl with the dough. Mix it until it is 
homogeneous. Now mix rye flour into it until you reach a consistency 
similar to what you had before the additional beer was added, i.e. 
like a very thick porridge. Make sure it's not too wet. Mix it thoroughly 
with a large spoon again until the onset of blisters in your palms.

Now is the time to put aside about 0.2 kg dough for another batch of 
sour dough. Mix a bit of salt and water in it to keep it moist and 
place it in a glass with a lid in the fridge if you're not gonna use 
it for a couple of weeks.

Grease up three big baking tins with vegetable oil. It is also a good 
idea to cover the bottoms of the tins with baking foil to make 
life easier for getting the breads out after baking. Put the dough 
in the tins so they are a bit more than half filled. Even out the 
doughs in the tins. Grease the surfaces with oil and sprinkle some 
sesame seed on it for decoration. Cover the tins with alu foil and 
put them into airing cupboard for the dough to raise another 5 hours. 

Bake the breads at 180C for 2.5 hours. The breads are ready 
once the surfaces are not moist and you can stick a knife through 
the breads without any dough sticking. You may have to remove the 
alu foils the last 20 minutes to achieve this. Take the hot breads 
out of the tins and carefully place them on a gridiron upside 
down so they can dry. Cover them from flies and germs with a cotton 
cloth until they are cold after which time it should be ready for 
eating. Pack the breads in sealed plastic bags to retain their 
moisture and optionally freeze straight away.


There's a lot of experimenting in doing all this and it does take 
some experience to do good breads and sour dough so don't 
despair.



An alternative procedure is to let the dough rest on the first day
for only about 8-10 hours until the moment you observe it begins to 
raise. At that time follow the procedure described in "Day 2" putting it 
into baking tins but let it raise for 19-21 hours before baking it.