Baking yeast in a pinch?

Where to start....lets see, everything was going really well until I went to re-hydrate my yeast. It turns out that brewing while enjoying a few too many brews is not wise for one's first batch. Anyways, back to the story: So I am re-hydrating my yeast, and I go to add a little of the extract for my starter. Just then it dawned on me I had not sterilized my extract, so in my panic I throw my starter pot on the stove. A minute or so later, it dawns on me that the yeast can't survive at that temp, so I remove it quickly...hoping to have saved it in time. I let my starter sit for about 45 minutes, and nothing has happened except a few bubbles gathering around the edge of my starter pot. At that point I concluded that my yeast was indeed dead. Being as how it was midnight, I couldn't just dash to the homebrew shop...so I went to Wal-Mart instead. Bought some Fleischman's yeast, made another starter, it has done just fine. My air-lock was bubbling constantly up until today when it slowed down, which is now the 4th day. Still bubbling, just slow. I want to know what effects this will have on my batch, and if I keep it bottled for awhile will that help to clear up any potential off tastes? Noob mistake, I know...should have had more yeast as backups. I have already fixed that mistake. I ordered ingredients for my next batch, and made sure to order several extra packets of yeast.

Oh man it's not gonna be right... Stinky yeast..

From what I'm able to tell, bread yeast won't come out so badly, it's just not ideal since it's been bred for different properties. The possible problems I've seen on looking the issue up are low alcohol tolerance(fine if you're not making a big beer), lots of CO2 production(be careful on the priming sugar when you bottle), and poor flocculation(it's likely to take longer for your beer to clear up.) Past that it might not be the best beer but it shouldn't be bad beer. Still, keeping some spare brewing yeast on hand in the future is a good plan.

Thanks Killer Robot...I had read once on BA that a college student convinced his professor to let him brew 2 batches (one with baking yeast, other with brew yeast) as an experiment. He had heard that baking yeast was no good, but identical recipes (with the exception of the yeast) had consistent gravity readings (within 2 thousandths of a point of each other), and the baking yeast batch had no off flavors. I guess the only thing to do is wait and see...I was tempted after the 1st day to toss it out, but who knows...it might come out just fine.

1) Break up that wall of text so it's easy on the eyes. :

2)Dont rehydrate your yeast and make a starter. Just rehydrate in water and pitch. In fact they do not like any sugars while they are rehydrating.

Ugh.. Fliechmens...

I think my 73 year old fad siad that is what his dad used back on the praires. Might explain why he will drink anything from BMC to a imperial Stout without batting an eye. In fact he once drank a lambic, made a face, said "tart", then drank the whole thing down.

Well, hopefully this wonlt taste to bad. This one will probbably take a lot of aging.

What kind of beer is it? Some styles might mask the bread yeast bite. Plus I would use some finings to drop the yeast out of suspension.

At the very least you will have some nice prison hooch.

I was originally shooting for a 5 gallon batch of a Sweetwater 420 clone, but went a little hoppier (extra 1/4oz Cascade hops at the 2 minute mark).

Sorry about the wall of text.

justinh85 said:

I was originally shooting for a 5 gallon batch of a Sweetwater 420 clone, but went a little hoppier (extra 1/4oz Cascade hops at the 2 minute mark).

Click to expand...

Yikes...I'm pretty sure that Sweetwater isn't pitching Fleischmann's into their APA!

But hey, the past is the past. Don't sweat it, let it ferment out and hope for the best. (And prepare for the worst!) Looking to the future, learn to keep a few packets of US-05 and S-04 around as insurance, they will get you out of a yeast crisis and still produce outstanding beer!

Justin--Have read several statements @ what may or may not happen, but no one has confessed that they may have done something similar. Well, I did it w/ a litght amber ale. Nothing horrible happened, also nothing spectacular. It turned out as a pleasant somewhat sweet fruity beer. Friends & SWMBO loved it I did too though not as much as they did, & may try it abain sometime. Good Luck

Any time I've used bread yeast to ferment something it tastes like that thing combined with bread. So I don't use it any more.


Bread, that is. Oh and bread yeast. May as well let it go though, it will probably still be good.

Brings new meaning to liquid bread.

Fliechmens ale?

Let us know how the ends up.

Well, it turned out pretty damn good. I passed out the remaining bottles at a Memorial Day party, and all my Sweetwater 420 addicts said that my APA had alot more character than they expected. Turned out closer to Sierra Nevada, tho...probably because of the extra hops I used in the batch.

At first it had a few off flavors, but an extra few days in the bottle cleared it right up. Just goes to show you should never dump a batch, ever. The only thing that didn't come out right was a slightly lower ABV, at 4.6% instead of the 5.1%. thanks for all the replies!

Excellent, I'm so glad you followed up with the results!

In my early days, I had heard about this miracle thing called "Apfelwein." I thought it would be easy so I made a batch.

Little did I realize that Red Star also makes baking yeast.


It turned out OK, in fact, but for some reason, the diacetyl levels went through the roof once it hit the bottles. It was tolerable for the first few weeks and then it just got worse and worse as it sat.

As a tip: I would try to avoid bottle-conditioning with baking yeast if you can, though if you drink it quickly enough it should be OK.

You know the funniest thing about this? Bakers used to get their yeast from local breweries. Now we've gone full circle and are getting yeast from bakers!

I was also in quite the pinch, so I tried bakers yeast! I am making a dark german ale, and I'm in the 4th day of fermentation.

So far, my yeast is acting similarly to JustinH85, airlock went crazy for a few days and now it's starting to calm down. So far, the aroma I'm getting smells great, but we'll see if there's any yeasty/bready taste in the brew itself.

I'll post my results!

I experimented and started a discussion on this here a couple weeks ago. My resulting beer was fine. I'd use it again if I was in a bind (intended yeast was dead or I forgot to buy it or whatever). Some people have reported "bready" and other off flavors and aromas. It seems that the majority, but not all, of those reports are at least 2nd-hand, i.e., the person reporting that result didn't actually make or taste the beer; he/she heard it from a "friend."

I have made two batches of wine using bakers yeast.. As has been said it takes longer to clear out but it was pretty good wine.

impressive, i would not have guess such pleasant results! awesome!

I used baking yeast twice both for ciders.

The first one came out great nice apple flavors, very good. The second came out real tart and had no apple flavor and a bit of a bread after taste (very slight).

I know this isn't very scientific but both were made from the same store bough juice.

There's a reason bread yeast cost 50 cents a pack. All they have to do is product C02 for a few hours.

Some times it works out sometimes not for the few extra dollars I'll buy brewing yeast, but if you get in a pinch it will still make beer or in my case cider.