Sara Moulton's Beer Bread

"I had no idea abaut the widespread popularity of beer bread until Debbie Bickford, a longtime fan of my show, emailed her family's version to me, along with this introduction: "Hope you will enjoy this simple bread. It looks lumpy, but the lumps are yummy.' My granddaughter likes it for the butter." The first time I made Debbie's recipe, it was so ridiculously simple, I thought it was a joke. Then I ate it and I understood it was a miracle. So little effort, so much flavor. In fact, it was so good, it inspired me to come up with a few variations of my own: beer bread made with cornmeal or whole wheat flour, and beer bread with onion. A cook named Farmgirl Susan, wbo writes for a web site called "A Year in Bread," wrote well about the recipe's versatility: "Beer bread is delicious warm or at room temperature and goes well with just about anything. You can even use it to make sandwiches. It also freezes beautifully." There are home cooks in the South who whip up a batch of biscuits for every meal. I'm thinking this beer bread could become my frequent side for weeknight meals...."