bread yeast

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joejaz

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anyone ever brew with bread yeast? beer? apfelwein? If so, what were the results. I alway have the fear of brewing and something happens to the yeast, drop it, loose it, the dog eats it. My home brew supply shop is not around the corner so I can't run right out and get some more.
 
go to the basic brewing radio website, one of their old video podcasts they did an experiment with bread yeast. I think the end result was a drinkable beer.
 
quick ge some snpa !! and culture... how long does it take to culture from one of your own brews?
Just a thought!!
 
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I did it when I was in college, and believe me I won't do it again. Bready is the only thing I can think of. Yuck!
 
Bread yeast was bred to produce lots of CO2 for quick rising. No consideration was given to alcohol production, tolerance , or ester production.

I've read that the alcohol tolerance is decent,, but the esters can be horriffic. Keep some good dry brewing yeast on hand for tight spots as others have said.
 
go to the basic brewing radio website, one of their old video podcasts they did an experiment with bread yeast. I think the end result was a drinkable beer.

it's worth a watch too

September 28, 2007 - Trading Places: Beer and Bread Yeast
James makes a Simcoe Ale with bread yeast, and Steve makes bread with beer yeast.

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=video
 
People have been using bread yeast since time immemoria, long before there were different, cleaner tasting, strains for brewing. In fact if you look at the first beer recipe, the "Hymn to Ninkasi" in the Tales of Gilgamesh,you will find that a special bread was baked, and that bread was added to the cooling mash...it was the yeast from this "Bappir" bread that induced fermentation.

The Maltose falcons and Anchor brewing worked on recreating the recipe several years ago, here's a pic of what they think the bappir looked like.

index.php


It's also been used my mead makers as well...

Here's the basic brewing video on using bread yeast. http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=trading-places-beer-and-bread-yeast you'll find the results surprising. They pretty much shoot down the off flavor idea....

Also check out Michael Tonsmier the Mad fermentationalist's experiments with different yeasts.

September 20, 2007 - Offbeat Yeast Part One
Michael Tonsmeire, the Mad Fermentationist from Washington D.C., shares some of his beers made with other-than-normal yeast. In this episode: Kvass, Flanders Red, and a Strong, Dark Belgian.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr09-20-07offbeatyeast.mp3

September 27, 2007 - Offbeat Yeast Part Two
We continue our tasting with Michael Tonsmeire, the Mad Fermentationist from Washington D.C. This week, all the beers are fermented with Brettanomyces.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr09-27-07offbeatyeast2.mp3

In other words, it's been used forever, and is still being used by brewers and mead makers, especially those without access to beer yeasts (THere was a guy on here this winter from Bulgaria who can't get any brewing ingredients). And also it is used currently by some people on the Grocery and produce experiment thread.

It won't kill you, it may or may not produce negative flavors in the beer (most of this is lore/conjecture passed on by people who haven't even actually tried it.)

Certain beers may even benefit from the "bready" taste that may be produced, think Kvass or a dark beer with a lot of roasty and biscuity malts in it.

Plus Experimentation is fun. :mug:
 
Certain beers may even benefit from the "bready" taste that may be produced, think Kvass or a dark beer with a lot of roasty and biscuity malts in it.

That's an interesting point to consider...having had East End Brewing's Kvass sessions made with bread yeast & looking at Kavass in general, I don't know is that's a very good example to draw conclusions about general beer usage (flavor, body and abv all being rather un-beer like). It wouldn't hide major off-flavors/fusel/ect contributed by the yeast so it is a good example for very low abv fermentation results.


OP: extra dry brewing yeast packets kept in the fridge are cheap and easy insurance in the event of a primary yeast disaster. I have a couple packs of US05, S33, Nottingham & Windsor in the fridge right now.
 
Very interesting responses, thanks all. I think on the next batch, I'll put a little aside in my old Mr Beer and try it with some bread yeast and compare the results. I worked with a guy that was in prison for awhile and he said they actually took bread that was made in the prison bakery and squeezed it and threw it in a bucket of pineapple juice and it fermented. Don't know how good it tasted.
 
I had some beer that was fermented with store bought yeast (bread yeast) and it was NASTY!!! Don't waste you time and money making and fermenting a beer with that yeast. You will be happy you spend about $6 more and get brewers yeast!
 
Very interesting responses, thanks all. I think on the next batch, I'll put a little aside in my old Mr Beer and try it with some bread yeast and compare the results. I worked with a guy that was in prison for awhile and he said they actually took bread that was made in the prison bakery and squeezed it and threw it in a bucket of pineapple juice and it fermented. Don't know how good it tasted.

Prison wine is...interesting...do a google search and see what they've come up with....I didn't know that a white sock stuffed with wonderbread and dropped in a garbage bag filled with ketchup, and the juice of juiceboxes would produce anything drinkable....oh wait taste isn't the issue in their case is it? :D

Seriously though, experimentation is fun, and the mr beer keg is the perfect device to test things in...use proper sanitization and use about half of what would be in a typical packet of brewer's yeast...

I just wonder at what stage of their brewing knowhow did the people who tried it and said it came out nasty, were at....if you never read anything about brewing and pitched a tbs of bread yeast into a fermenter in your dorm room, and didn't sanitize properly, and drank it 3 days after they bottles it, then even a 6 dollar vial of yeast could produce something nasty....
 
You said it Revvy, "experimentation is fun"..... like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
 
You said it Revvy, "experimentation is fun"..... like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

Even failed experiments can be fun...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=734770&postcount=76

I don't get why it seems that anytime someone wants to experiment (even someone like Orfy who's an institution on here) it seems people come out of the woodwork to slam it, instead of encouraging it..One never knows what could come out of it, or what brewing myth could get busted...

How much of our conventional wisdom and common brewing practices now came out of experiments...and I bet they were slammed as well...Some that come to mind.

Modifying a cooler as an MLT
Using an oxygen can and an airstone to aerate (I bet that one went over well in the beginning, "you want to do what, you'll oxydize your beer!!!")
The Better Bottle...

Oh by the way....grinding up Maltballs and trying to ferment that along with cereal is not doable...:D
 
I am all for experimenting, but if you are a homebrewer, there is some yeast in a fermenter, a bottle, or a keg somewhere!
 
on the note of experimenting, I tried brewing some wine with frozen juice, sugar and beer yeast I had sitting in the fridge and it came out pretty dang good! I just tried it the other day after letting it sit only for a month or so and hey, I know I'll keep up the experimenting and try brewing some more wine from frozen concentrated juice and maybe try using bakers yeast for a small batch... 2 gallons is all you need to do to know if it sucked or just a few glass'/(mugs in my case, being a beer brewing at heart) and your pretty slammed!
 
Hey everyone,

I hate paying full price for booze, so even while I'm away from home I'm still homebrewing. :D

I brewed a Graff of sorts from 3 liters of apple juice plus one kg of liquid malt extract (they sell this in the stores here). I threw in about a dry yeast packets worth of yeast and waited a week. Its actually not that bad. Its drinkable but I would not give it away. Fermented with no temperature control and an indoor average of 70 f about.

The thing that makes it less than 'gift able'is the esters. Bread yeast ferments with a very estery twang. I hear there is a Lhbs around here, I plan to try the same recipe with champagne yeast and I'll probably get a good drink out of it.

PS does anyone know how to calculate the og of that recipe? No hydrometer here either!
 
anyone ever brew with bread yeast? beer? apfelwein? If so, what were the results. I alway have the fear of brewing and something happens to the yeast, drop it, loose it, the dog eats it. My home brew supply shop is not around the corner so I can't run right out and get some more.

Never tried it with beer, but when I was 18 or 19, I used it for a blackberry wine. Picked a bunch of berries from the backyard, threw em in a large pot with water and a bunch of white sugar and cooked it for about an hour or so. Fermented 10 days in about a gallon or so size glass jug, then put into a few 2 liter bottles and put in the fridge for a couple of days before drinking. Taste wasn't too bad...definitely better than night train or any of that crap, was slightly sweet though, but not overly. Also slightly carbonated, and the alcohol level was pretty high. A good goofy sort of buzz. Definitely a pretty amateur sort of precedure, and I was lucky it didn't turn out a lot worse.
 
I'm trying a gallon batch of orange clove mead right now using Quick rising bakers yeast. It started fermentation almost immediately, and it smells of bread and honey. I like to expirement so I figured why not try a gallon. It all cost about $11.00.
 
last year I got one of them all-in-one canned extract kits for x-mas,,,the thing was on some box store shelf for years and was missing the yeast packet normally taped to the top of the can so I used red star bakers yeast. The final product tasted a lot like a amstell but with a slight bread flavor.
 
Interesting question, and one I have thought about. I expect ester production will be controlled with lower temperatures.

Typically, bread is risen at an elevated temperature (~100 F) and then proofed at an even higher temperature (~150 F). This produces that lovely aroma and flavor that bread yeast adds. I think we can expect bread yeast to behave more like brewer's yeast at lower temperatures, even if it will still likely remain quite esterey. However, there are numerous bread recipes that employ overnight rising in the refrigerator, at temperatures of around 35 F. Especially no-knead breads. Notable traits of such breads are the lower "yeasty" flavors present in them, and greatly reduced 'bready' aroma.

Bread yeast is not selected for its carbonation activity, as a previous poster suggested. That is silly, as a given amount of sugar fermented will produce a given volume of CO2, no matter what. What it is selected for are two traits: Fast action, and storage stability. When a person buys a package of yeast from the store, they want it to work even if it sits in the fridge for 6 months. and when they do use it they want their bread to rise in a couple hours, rather than for an entire morning or even overnight. They are selected for convenience. This is greatly opposed to brewer's yeasts which have been repeatedly used with only short-term slurry turnover for centuries or more.

For the science of it, Bread yeast typically has a higher alcohol tolerance than an ale or lager yeast, from 13-15% alcohol content. It therefore has a quite high attenuation, something around 85%. Its flocculation is very low, and probably will require extra time to settle. I suspect a lagering would give the best results (bread yeast bock, anyone?). It is also an aggressive yeast, and tends to do its work on a wort faster than average. As long as autolysis can be avoided, this yeast will do quite fine.

All in all, it works because genetically it's still essentially the same species as bread yeast; in more or less the same way a both a Golden Retriever and a Poodle are essentially the same species. It's just that one has been bred for a more general purpose, and others have been adapted to a very specific purpose.

Bear in mind that there are still many very fine beers (and wines) made today that still rely on wild fermentation! Yeasts naturally are found on fruits such as grapes, and traditionally this is where yeast was introduced from in wine-making. Lambics (and other beers relying on brettanomyces) have also relied on "wild" yeast to this very day..and they are mighty fine beers.

Don't be afraid of such things; beer and mead were made since time before memory from any yeast that happened to come along; and in spite of this the whole idea managed to catch on and stay popular through the centuries.
 
I visited this thread because the idea occurred to me that it would be fun and interesting to try making a "survivalist beer". e.g. What could you make if you could only get ingredients that are more commonly available such as whole kernel barley, bread yeast and some variety of hops that might be able to be grown locally.

For me, in central California, the hops issue becomes a sticking point because hops generally prefer a cooler and more moist climate. I'm going to have to dig into this issue a little deeper. But in the meantime, I'm thinking of buying some whole barleycorns. Will first need to malt then roast the barley. Then we'll see if we have something to work with to build a batch of beer. At that point we'll drag out the old Mr. Beer ...

to be continued ..... :)
 
I visited this thread because the idea occurred to me that it would be fun and interesting to try making a "survivalist beer". e.g. What could you make if you could only get ingredients that are more commonly available such as whole kernel barley, bread yeast and some variety of hops that might be able to be grown locally.

For me, in central California, the hops issue becomes a sticking point because hops generally prefer a cooler and more moist climate. I'm going to have to dig into this issue a little deeper. But in the meantime, I'm thinking of buying some whole barleycorns. Will first need to malt then roast the barley. Then we'll see if we have something to work with to build a batch of beer. At that point we'll drag out the old Mr. Beer ...

to be continued ..... :)

You should definitely check out the
You are subscribed to this thread The GaP (Grocery and Produce) Beer Experiment
, which is exactly about that sort of thing.
 
I have used the bread yeast for apple wine and it turned out just fine.It was i think my 1rst home brew.Used the raisins for yeast food and added sugar to a gallon of juice.Not as strong as using a champagne yeast.The flavor wasn't bad at all.I have not however used it for beer.
Hope this helps.
 
I'm thinking the fermentables and yeast won't be as big of a problem as the bittering agent. Barley has been around for centuries. I suspect that specialized brewing barley varieties such as domestic two row and Maris Otter are recent additions to the scene. Old statues from ancient Egypt depict using bread as a starter for their beer. And, like someone else said, the yeast that falls from the sky naturally is the basis for Lambics. So, with good water we have three of the 4 essentials for making beer.

The bittering needs to come from sources other than hops if you are going to try to make a beer that can be made from readily available ingredients. I did a search on the internet for "bitter herbs" and came up with quite a list including goldenseal, endive, chamomile, dandelions, horehound, rue, yarrow, etc. Most of these are used in folk medicines so, in small quantities they should be about harmless. Just need to go through the process of making "tea" out of each for a tasting/smelling evaluation to see if it might work in beer.

I really appreciate the ironlion's post that advised a very cool fermentation. It hadn't occurred to me but, after some reflection, agree that it could have been the undoing of the experiment if I'd fermented too warm.
 
Well i Brewed both Wine & Beer with bread yeast since thats the only yeast available where i live.

beer turned out awesome
Wine well what can i say not strong as wine abv% but still drinkable it chew red grape flavor thou... so i don't recommend for that purpose. "i don't know why probably due strain of yeast" work fine with white ones and fruit like "Cornus mas" turned out quiet well still low abv...

few things if you want to use it.


1. it make tons of CO2 foam so you have to consider more head space atleast for first 48hours

2. dont expect high abv so far highest i manage even with yeast energizer+nutrient was like 8.5%

3. like rest of yeast it settle down but not as quickly as like lalvin 1118 take more time so be patient.

4. if you are in hurry right after they finished put it on fridge for 2 or 3 days they all settle down you can rack and bottle it

i guess that't all i know so far have fun brewing

Cheers :tank:

anyone ever brew with bread yeast? beer? apfelwein? If so, what were the results. I alway have the fear of brewing and something happens to the yeast, drop it, loose it, the dog eats it. My home brew supply shop is not around the corner so I can't run right out and get some more.
 
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