Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Is making or consuming sourdough bread halal? Below are a few paragraphs from a recipe to explain how alcohol is created in the process of making sourdough. The “hooch” liquid is alcohol.
After 24 hours, you pour off about a cup of the mixture and feed it with another cup of flour and another cup of water. In a few days, the mixture will become frothy as the yeast population grows. The froth is caused by the carbon dioxide that the yeast is generating. The starter will also have a bacteria, lactobacilli, in it. This lends to the slightly acidic flavor of the bread by creating lactic acid! The alcohol that the yeast creates and the lactic acid together are the source of sourdough bread’s unique flavor!
A common question at this point is, “why doesn’t the flour get infested with all sorts of mold and bacteria and become a disgusting health hazard????” For example, if you put a bowl of sugar water or orange juice out on the counter, that is exactly what would happen. It turns out that the starch in bread flour is something that not a lot of bacteria can easily handle, while sugar is (see How Food Works for some details). Yeast, on the other hand, creates special enzymes to deal with starch. The yeast and lactobacilli also “poison” the culture with the alcohol and lactic acid they produce, and that keeps other bacteria out.
Leave the starter on the kitchen counter for five days. As the starter ferments, it will develop a strong aroma — bready and alcoholy and not particular appetizing. Feed it every day or two by dividing it in half and adding a cup of flour and a cup of water to one half of it (you can throw the other half away). When you see a watery substance floating to the top, stir it. Sourdough bakers call this “hooch.” Over the week the starter became a thick liquid, like pancake batter. It will be slightly yellowish.
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.
Yes, sourdough bread is halal, because the incidental presence of alcohol for non-intoxicating purposes does not render food haram–if it is in an amount that doesn’t intoxicate; isn’t there as an intoxicant; and isn’t consumed because of intoxication.
And Allah alone gives success.
Faraz Rabbani