Why brewers yeast?

Why must you use brewers yeast when makeing beer or liquer and not baking yeast?
Also, if you can use baking yeast, is there a temp differance between baking yeast and brewers yeast you want to distill at?

I need thorough awnsers please.

Because beer is brewed and bread is baked.

My local health food shop sells a tub labelled "Brewers Yeast". I have never tried to brew with it though - I think they sell it as a dietary supplement or something.
Couldn't imagine ever using it for beer though.... or could it be used??

Yeast does not have to be expensive because it is used for brewing. The company youngs sell a big bag of dried brewers yeast that is reasonably cheap.

I believe that using Bakers yeast for beer making is a BAAAAAAAAD idea. Mainly because the beer wont clear but other than that just because it is plain bad.

taste
at least that's what i've heard - could be that baking strains have been modified (just like brewing strains have) to the point where they wouldn't make an effective brewers' yeast, but the bigger concern (IMHO) would be taste as the yeast contribute more to the taste than most folks realize.

tempted-fate said:

Why must you use brewers yeast when makeing beer or liquer and not baking yeast?
Also, if you can use baking yeast, is there a temp differance between baking yeast and brewers yeast you want to distill at?

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You can ferment wort with baker's yeast and you can bake bread with brewer's yeast. It all depends on what flavors you want to have. The temperature stays the same (room temp). I wouldn't suggest using it for a lager unless it's a steam beer.

Oh, and we do not distill.

Wild

if you like bread tasteing beer then use bakeing yeast!

Baker's yeast would ferment very violently and leave an extremely yeasty tasting beer. Brewer's yeast (live) would take about 5 times as long to make a loaf of bread rise. The brewer's yeast that is sold in health food stores is actually just that - yeast that has been filtered out of beer at commercial breweries. It is cooked, though, and therefore dead. It won't do anything for your beer.

Kephren said:

Baker's yeast would ferment very violently and leave an extremely yeasty tasting beer. Brewer's yeast (live) would take about 5 times as long to make a loaf of bread rise. The brewer's yeast that is sold in health food stores is actually just that - yeast that has been filtered out of beer at commercial breweries. It is cooked, though, and therefore dead. It won't do anything for your beer.

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High in vitamins, or so I'm told. I believe it's got B12 complexes and such. I know this little gal at work that swears by all that twice-as-expensive health food crap. She bakes her own bread and uses natural yeast cultures and organic wheat and all that stuff. She claims that yeast (comercial bakers and all brewers) have been modified at a genetic level to taste a certain way and produce a certain yield. I still have yet to figure out how that's a bad thing. Long story short--yeast is grown for specific purposes and to misuse them might yield negative results.

AlaskaAl(e) said:

I believe it's got B12 complexes and such.

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Might not - course this could be all rubbish:
http://www.vitaminuk.com/pages/articles/brewersyeast.htm

"Brewers Yeast is known as nature’s wonder food, a name that it certainly deserves. It is an excellent source of all the major B vitamins (except B12). It also contains other vitamins, sixteen amino acids and fourteen or more minerals."

Beer yeast strains have been created with three things in mind:
1. attenuation: the yeast strain's effectiveness at transforming sugars into alcohol.
2. flocculation: the degree to which the yeast strain will settle out of the beer when fermentation is complete thus resulting in clear beer without strong yeast taste.
And..
3. flavor profile: I'm probably the only one here still using dry yeast.. liquid is preferred because there are a greater variety of yeast strains available in that medium... and each strain can add just the right touch of flavor that your particular style of beer demands.

In short, I wouldn't try it.

kenmc said:

Might not - course this could be all rubbish:
http://www.vitaminuk.com/pages/articles/brewersyeast.htm

"Brewers Yeast is known as nature’s wonder food, a name that it certainly deserves. It is an excellent source of all the major B vitamins (except B12). It also contains other vitamins, sixteen amino acids and fourteen or more minerals."

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Your source is probably right. My source is a bit on the odd side as it is. She's probably too smart for her own good. Apparently she doesn't drink beer (or anything alcoholic for that matter) because it's "not good for you". I'm looking into having her committed.