This Beer Pizza Dough is a chewy yet crispy pizza dough to make on your next pizza night! Use your favorite beer to give this pizza dough a hoppy flavor. This is kid friendly too! The alcohol burns off in the oven making this a family friendly dinner!
Where we live, there aren't really any great pizza places. Coming from New Jersey, I know good pizza. When I realized that the pizza around here was sub-par for my liking, I decided to start making my own! My original recipe was from the Pioneer Woman. Her pizza dough is delicious! From there I tried adding some sourdough starter, and then some with beer!
Some of my favorite pizza recipes are my sourdough pizza and my Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough. It's light and crispy, yet chewy and holds it's shape. Not everyone has sourdough starter in their house, but if you're like my family, odds are you have some beer in the house!
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Why You'll Love This Beer Pizza Dough
- It's ready in a few hours! The ingredients are mixed together and rise in only a few hours. I like to make this at noon on a Friday to have it ready to go into the oven by 5pm that same day.
- It's a fun family activity! I love making pizza with my family. The kids get to pick what toppings and get involved in making dinner!
- It's perfect to make ahead! You can make this dough and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or you can freeze the dough for 3 months and thaw them on the counter when you are ready to use them.
Ingredients You'll Need
All these ingredients are things you probably already have in the house!
- Yeast- To proof or not to proof. Proofing is adding yeast to water and waiting for it to become active, bubbly, and foamy. For this recipe, I'm not going to proof. Proof your yeast if you think it might be too old or past it's expiration date. To proof, place the yeast in ½ cup of warm water and then add the water to the dough. Add ½ cup more flour as well to off set the extra water.
- Flour- Whole wheat and bread flour is the combo I'm using. All bread flour would be perfect as well if you don't have whole wheat flour in the house.
- Beer- Use whatever type of beer you have in the house that you enjoy. Don't use flavored beer though, no one wants a pumpkin spice flavored pizza dough!
Equipment
Step By Step Photos
How To Make Beer Pizza Dough
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flours and salt. Mix the ingredients together.
- Add the olive oil, yeast, and room temperature beer to the stand mixer.
- With the hook attachment, mix the ingredients together on medium speed until they form a dough ball, which should take about 5 minutes. You'll know it's well mixed when there is no flour left in the bowl and the dough is one cohesive ball.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place the bowl in a warm, draft free area. The best place is in an OFF oven. Make sure to note that the dough is in the oven though, so no one turns it on while it's rising.
- Allow the dough to rise for 2-3 hours, until it has doubled in size. If your beer is cold, the time it takes to rise will be longer.
- After the dough has doubled in size, divide the dough into two dough balls.
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
- Grease the pizza pan or preheat the pizza stone. Add the dough to the pan and bake it in the oven for 5-8 minutes.
- Take the pan out of the oven and top with your favorite pizza toppings and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Which Beer To Use
Depending on the type of beer you use would depend the amount of beer flavor is imparted into the dough.
- Light lager- Beers like Bud Light or Michelob would not impart much flavor at all into the dough. This would be a good beer to use if you are using this dough for a pizza party with kids, so they don't taste any hint of the hoppy flavor.
- Brown ales or IPAs- These beers would give a depth of flavor to the dough and the flavor would be more prominent.
- Beers to stay away from- I'd stay away from flavored beers, lime flavored or pumpkin spice flavored for example. Lime flavored pizza might be a little too weird for us all!
Making This Dough Ahead of Time
Refrigerating the dough
Once the dough has risen and doubled in size, separate the dough into two balls. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and use them whenever you are ready. You can keep them refrigerated for up to three days.
Freezing the dough
Once the dough has risen and doubled in size, separate the dough into two dough balls. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze them for a few hours until they are completely frozen. Once frozen, take them off the baking sheet and place them in Ziploc bags. Each dough ball will probably need it's own Ziploc bag, as they likely won't fit in just one.
Let's Have A Pizza Party!
This recipe yields two dough balls, each would make a 14 inch pizza. To make this a perfect pizza party dough, instead of cutting it into two dough balls, cut it into 8 dough balls! Each person can have their own pizza ball and can top their own pizza with whatever they would like. Bake them on large baking sheets. You can usually fit two or three pizzas on one large baking sheet. Here are some toppings to have available when having a pizza party:
- Tomato Sauce
- Mozzarella
- Pepperoni
- Mushrooms
- Black Olives
- Green Peppers
- Sliced Onions
- Fresh Basil
Tips and Tricks
- The beer should be at room temperature. Take the beer out of the refrigerator and pour it into a liquid measuring cup. Leave it on the counter for about an hour and allow it to completely come to room temperature. If you use cold beer, it will take hours before the dough rises properly.
- Pizza comes out best on a pizza stone. We have one and it's a game changer! You have to preheat the stone in the oven before you can bake on it, otherwise it won't make crispy pizza. We also love this pizza pan. The holes allow the crust to get really crispy and delicious.
- I've learned from watching many an episode of The Great British Bake Off, but salt kills yeast. So when you are adding the salt to the dough, don't add it directly on top of the yeast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Definitely! If you don't have any beer in the house or don't want to use beer, simply replace the beer with room temperature water.
Yes! To get that perfect, crispy crust, it's best to pre-bake the dough, especially if you use heavy toppings. The middle of the pizza dough won't be as cooked or crispy if you don't pre-bake it.
No need to knead! The stand mixer does all the hard work of kneading the dough to perfection.
Other Recipes To Try
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📖 Recipe
Beer Pizza Dough
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 2 cups Bread Flour
- ⅓ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 teaspoon Instant Yeast
- 12 ounces Beer Room Temperature
- 2 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix.
- Add the beer, yeast, olive oil, and salt to the bowl. Mix together for 5 minutes until the dough forms a dough ball and all the ingredients are mixed together. There should be no leftover flour left in the bowl.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for 2-3 hours in a warm, draft free place.
- After 3 hours, or when the dough has doubled in size, divide the dough into two dough balls and place them on a floured surface.
- Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
- Roll out the pizza dough and place it on a greased pizza pan or a preheated pizza stone. Bake for 5-8 minutes to precook the dough. Carefully take out the pizza dough and top with your favorite toppings.
Notes
- The salt should not be added directly to the yeast. Mix the flour and salt together first, and then add the yeast. The salt will kill the yeast and not allow the dough to rise.
- This makes two 14 inch pizzas. To make these individual pizzas, cut the dough into 8 dough balls and roll out as you would.
- Place the dough in an OFF oven and allow it to rise. Make sure to note that the dough is in the oven so you don't preheat the oven while the dough is in there.
- The beer should be at room temperature. Take the beer out of the refrigerator and pour it into a liquid measuring cup. Leave it on the counter for about an hour and allow it to completely come to room temperature. If you use cold beer, it will take hours before the dough rises properly.
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Donna Thomas says
I haven't made the dough yet, but I have a question on using it later, or freezing it. Should it be kneaded down, then froze, or kept in the refrigerator? or keep it as risen and freeze, or save in fridge?
lynnswayoflife says
Yes, knead it down and separate it into two dough balls. Then freeze them individually or keep them in the refrigerator as dough balls.
Sachi says
I've made beer bread, and now beer pizza dough, makes sense!
Sherry says
I love trying different pizza crust recipes and your turned out perfect and tasted amazing!!
laura says
The flavor of this pizza dough is outstanding! Love it.
Aimee B. says
Whipped this up to snack on while watching football and the husband was not disappointed!
Kim says
We are big pizza lovers over here and we loved this recipe!! It's so delicious!
Jenn says
I love pizza and hubs loves beer so this is perfect for us both! Delish!
Cindy says
What? Beer in pizza dough? Where has this been all my life?! Thanks for a great recipe.
Robin Donovan says
This is such a great idea! I can't wait to try this recipe.
Mandy Applegate says
I'd have never thought to make pizza dough with beer, I'm going to try this one at the weekend!