Baker's Yeast

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Captain Damage

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
1,229
Reaction score
85
Location
Lowell, Massachusetts
I've started a small, 1/2 gallon batch using Fleishamn's baker's yeast. Just some extract and some hops. It's an experiment I have to go ahead and try for myself or it will become a brain parasite. Does anyone have any data re what kind of attenuation I can expect?
 
Just did the same experiment myself. One more week in the fermenter then off to 3 weeks of bottles. I'll update then.
 
I have the opposite curiosity. Can I make bread with beer yeast?
Go Here: http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=video and find the September 28, 2007 video podcast. They make bread with beer yeast and beer with bread yeast. Both came out well they say.

Of course beer yeast is more expensive than baker's yeast, unless I guess you're reusing yeast from your cake.

Re my OP, they report an attenuation of 80% when using the bread yeast to ferment beer.

On a more recent Basic Brewing Radio podcast a guest pointed out that until relatively recently in history, most bread and beer were made with the same yeasts. People kept a bread starter "sponge" and used a lump of that to inoculate their beer.
 
tried the bread yeast in a small 1 gallon years ago IMO it had a "funk" to it... I did ferment it on the very warm side... funk wasn't horrible raisin-like... a bit sour?... maybe. (was expecting a pale ale)

I wish I still had my old brew note book... next time I try I might use some belgian grains like special b and darken it up and belgian it out with some belgian candy sugar... doesn't make a clean brew... some friends liked it other did not.
 
I did something similar a while back, and got 74% attenuation.

The page needs to be updated...basically, it's a cooking beer. It wasn't horrible, but it was pretty cidery and and I can't say I'd repeat it. Still, it was interesting to try!
 
My version was more cidery than many ciders I have had. Pretty much aweful. Good experiment, good learning piece, bad beer. Need a better plan to make a beer taste like drinking bread.
 
My version was more cidery than many ciders I have had. Pretty much aweful. Good experiment, good learning piece, bad beer. Need a better plan to make a beer taste like drinking bread.

Interesting... BUT It's NEVER been "good" in my experience using bread yeast.

The bread yeast experiment I made mid winter on top of heat vent. result was less than stellar but not undrinkable bad... won't do it again but.. like you said "a learning experience". LOL I'm a glutton for punishment but I've done it twice... second time had the raison character.. but I think it did have some special B malt in there that I forgot about along with some left over belgian candy sugar... which may have contributed to raison flavor


glad others have tried this too!
 
This is how I got started way back in 1986 when I did my first brews. They were drinkable but man on man were they the book definition of hooch!

I am going to try to make some bread with brewing yeast from my yeast cake tomorrow.

m.
 
This is how I got started way back in 1986 when I did my first brews. They were drinkable but man on man were they the book definition of hooch!

I am going to try to make some bread with brewing yeast from my yeast cake tomorrow.

m.


now that works great! I have done that and the dirtier the yeast is the better for bread!... not so uch for beer. I've done my jalepeno beer bread with a 3rd gen. yeast from several porters and used some spent grains in the bread too and WOW best bread yet!... I've also done a dog biscuit with spent grain, and brew trub... for the neighbors dogs... they couldn't get enough. the dog biscuits smelled so good when I was baking them I tried a taste... not too shabby! Also supossedly yeast keeps fleas off your dogs. b-12 works for humans too (brewers yeast has tons of b12!) for mosquitos... don't know about fleas...
 
+1 to bread with beer yeast. that's how I use up my yeast cakes. I usually do it like a poolish or biga pre-ferment, with equal parts (by weight) flour and water, with some of the cake added in, left to ferment and get a bunch of flavor overnight. Then I mix the final dough in the morning, adding a bit more of the fresh yeast at mixing. amazing.
 
+1 to bread with beer yeast. that's how I use up my yeast cakes. I usually do it like a poolish or biga pre-ferment, with equal parts (by weight) flour and water, with some of the cake added in, left to ferment and get a bunch of flavor overnight. Then I mix the final dough in the morning, adding a bit more of the fresh yeast at mixing. amazing.

add some spent grains and WOW! really nice! crusty from yeast, and grainy from spent grains.... got the tip from cook at Stoudts Black Angus in Adamstown PA (the restaurant associated with Stoudt's brewing company)
 
I have the opposite curiosity. Can I make bread with beer yeast?



Traditionally bread is made with leftover beer yeast. I have done it plenty of times... I tend to back breads and bring them with me to other peoples houses... It's never happened but it could quite embarassing to get pulled over. It makes you and your car smell like a brewery.
 
Tasting the bread yeast beer experiment now... Not bad. Nothing great, but nothing wrong with it. There is no flavor here that makes me think this is something I should never do again. Tastes like beer.

I got 72% attenuation.
 
Oddly enough, I actually made bread (before I got the homebrewing bug) from a yeast culture I started from some beer yeast (from a bottle of one of my favorite Belgian style brews). It took a long time to rise, and produced a bread that wasn't half bad, but a little odd. The little buggers definitely seem to have a preference for what type of work they like to do.
 
So what's a ballpark estimate for the amount of ale yeast slurry to use for a loaf of bread? Assuming I keep the dregs of my carboy after primary fermentation.
 
So what's a ballpark estimate for the amount of ale yeast slurry to use for a loaf of bread? Assuming I keep the dregs of my carboy after primary fermentation.

when doing a "direct dough method" bread I have no idea, when I'm doing a preferment I use about a 1/4 of slurry to make into a 300g perferment, into a few loafs. I really don't use a recipe, but a percentage table.
 
Hmm, so this is an interesting thread considering what I just read in Radical Brewing.

It has a recipe for a traditional Finnish brew called Sahti which calls for bread yeast... actually it calls for a lot of things... and I really find myself wanting to make it! OG ~1.062, 71% pils, 9% aromatic/dark munich, 9% malted rye, 7% dark crystal/special B, 4% malted rye smoked over pine, spruce and juniper berries. Crushed juniper berries also added to the boil.

Sounds absolutely delicious... but is it really a good idea to use bread yeast? Recipe says to use no more than 1/4 small cake (whatever that is) but I just worry I would be terribly disappointed when it tastes like liquid juniper sourdough.
 
So in general.. is bakers yeast Top fermenting?? Did anyone try lager temps during the fermenting?
It's top fermenting. On the August 31, 2006 Basic Brewing Radio podcast someone who knows more than me said baker's yeast is a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae; i.e., ale yeast. I just let it ferment at room temperature - 65F-70F.
 
So I had an thought when seeing this thread. I know you can make beer with bread yeast, but I was told the breadiness can be very overpowering as I am sure plenty of people have already said. However, what if you used this with a nice simple semi-dark grain bill (SRM finishing around 18-20), and mixed in plenty of ginger, honey, and cinnamon. Would it produce a nice pronounced gingerbread flavor for a christmas gingerbread ale? Me wonders....
 
I didn't taste any overpowering bread flavor at all. There is no strong flavor - off or otherwise - that I associate with coming from the yeast. My recipe was just pilsen DME for OG 1.056, and fuggles and ekg hops to 35 ibu. This was a 1/2 gallon batch. I used one packet of the Fleishman's Rapid Rise bread yeast. I'm sure if I used a different yeast with the same recipe I'd be able to identify the yeast's flavors. But this beer came out more or less how you might expect from the recipe.
 
When I've made bread from beer yeast, I've made a starter culture from the ale yeast. As I recall, I used the goodies at the bottom of a 22 oz. size bottle of one of the Unibroue, or perhaps it was Allagash Belgians (about 1/2c of liquid as I recall), with a pinch or two of sugar and warm (70-80F) water, put it all in a sterilized mason jar with enough bread flour to make a batter, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let it sit in a warm kitchen until it starts to show signs of life. It's a similar process used to get a sourdough culture restarted. You have to tend to it over the course of a few days, until you've got about 2 c. of "starter" (which sort of resembles a paste). It should smell sour, but with a good fruity / yeasty smell to it.

Unfortunately I'm so used to doing sourdough starters now that I just do it by habit more than recipe. Oddly enough, breadmaking seems very similar to homebrewing - patience and experimentation go a long way towards making edible happiness.
 
When I've made bread from beer yeast, I've made a starter culture from the ale yeast. As I recall, I used the goodies at the bottom of a 22 oz. size bottle of one of the Unibroue, or perhaps it was Allagash Belgians (about 1/2c of liquid as I recall), with a pinch or two of sugar and warm (70-80F) water, put it all in a sterilized mason jar with enough bread flour to make a batter, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let it sit in a warm kitchen until it starts to show signs of life. It's a similar process used to get a sourdough culture restarted. You have to tend to it over the course of a few days, until you've got about 2 c. of "starter" (which sort of resembles a paste). It should smell sour, but with a good fruity / yeasty smell to it.

Unfortunately I'm so used to doing sourdough starters now that I just do it by habit more than recipe. Oddly enough, breadmaking seems very similar to homebrewing - patience and experimentation go a long way towards making edible happiness.

This is pretty much what I do. preferments = starters. needed for proper bread, imho. sourdough included. I use it for everything that's not a sweet bread (unless I'm doing a really special occasion one, and I convert my sourdough starter to a sweet italian starter for them). who needs commercial yeast anyway?
 
I just brewed up a new 5 gal batch, kind of a hodge podge of ingredients including 9 lbs of lme, 2 lbs of chocolate malt, 3 cups of smoked cherry malt and 1 lb of blackberry pie filling, yumm. I got to use my new 8 gal brewpot.
Anyway, so the Wymans tube of yeast I bought was dead and against my better judgement I am going to go into my pantry and dip into the yeast! Yes I know I will probably wreck all of my hard work but I have to try.

I will post and let you all know how it turns out!!
 
There's a reason this thread has been dead for almost 3 years. Out of curiosity, I'll bite though.... how did you know that your vial of yeast was dead? And what exactly is wymans yeast? (I did a search and the only thing I got was a 1988 yeast study by a guy named Wyman.)
 
Back
Top