Fresh baker's yeast

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yeastforbrains

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Hello hbt-community.
I went grocery shopping on Friday, and on impulse, with no intention of baking, I picked up a cube of fresh bakers yeast. Today I brewed up an all grain mild ale, dissolved the full 42 grams cube in some luke warm water. I proofed it with a few drops of my about-to-chill wort, and I had good froth about 15 minutes later. When my wort was 21°C I started running it into the fermenter and I pitched the active yeast. 1 hour later, I have activity in the airlock, bubbling away behind me. Now I wonder what to expect. These cubes aren't packaged in air-tight, sterilized containers, I just took my chances. Also the yeast strain is unknown, so it might turn out tasting funny. Anyone brewed beer with baker's yeast?
Cheers!
 
That's funny, I had just been wondering what would happen with bread yeast in beer. Here's to you for trying it! :mug:

How's it doing today?
 
Probably won't be bad at all really. If it floccs good then it won't taste bread or yeasty as it should be called. In my experience bread yeast will stay cleaner than some ale strains out there marketed for beer.
 
Probably won't be bad at all really. If it floccs good then it won't taste bread or yeasty as it should be called. In my experience bread yeast will stay cleaner than some ale strains out there marketed for beer.

Awesome! At least the airlock smells nice and sweet, nothing funky. Fermentation has been steady and controlled since it started. Will take an sg sample and taste it tonight. Og was 1.032 so it's a small beer, should be easy to pick up flaws. Cheers!
 
i've done it before. People have different experiences with it due to it not being one "strain". It's all Saccharomyces, but not one kind.
Last time I tried it, it was very Belgian... wasn't bad but wasn't great tasting.
 
It's been chugging away for 24 hours. Sg sample measured 1.020, and smells&tastes neutral, not particularly yeasty or estery. No funk. Still chugging steadily.
 
My son made some wine over the summer out of corn meal - just a mess-around project. Anyway, he used bread yeast to make it. It tasted good, even better when the yeast settled out. Not bready at all.

My grandfather made a lot of "country fruit" wines using bread yeast. His wines weren't "professional" quality, of course, but they were good - very good - and not bready.

So while it might not be the "best practice" out there, I personally don't think it is as bad as many seem to think it is. Hell, in some beers, "bready is actually a desired trait, right?

As always, the mileage of others may vary....
 
i've done it before. People have different experiences with it due to it not being one "strain". It's all Saccharomyces, but not one kind.
Last time I tried it, it was very Belgian... wasn't bad but wasn't great tasting.

Thanks for input! What temp did you ferment at? Mine is sitting at 70°
 
It will ferment, taste might be a bit different and bakers yeast does not do well for higher ABV beers, because at a certain alcohol level the alcohol just kills the yeast.
 
I think Baker's yeast will actually tolerate alcohol levels higher than some beer yeasts. Talking about 15% or close to it.
 
Question (and mostly curious): Have you noticed a higher than usual amount of CO2 off gassing? I believe that baker's yeast has been bred and selected for creating more gas, for leavening bread better.
 

I was thinking the same, but the airlock has had a very easy job. Fermentation has been quiet, sivilised and steady. Yesterday's sg measured 1.013, and it was still chugging quietly away.
 
Happy new year, brewers! A small update on this post. The beer fermented down to around 1.010, I bottle conditioned it to around 1.8 vol co2. I'm perfectly happy with the result. It has a malty body and nice yeast profile reminiscent of a typical English ale. Flocculation was good and it produced a perfectly clear mild, as the photo shows. I cannot fault it in any way and I didn't expect it to be this successful. I will brew with fresh baker's yeast again, and I will try different makes. Cheers --yfb--

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A couple of things I see. You pitched approximately 4 times the amount of yeast that would normally be used. Without knowing the characteristics of the yeast your ideal fermentation temperature is a WAG. (wild ass guess) You seem to have gotten something drinkable, but I think your chances of getting something terrible with this procedure is very high.

If you are willing to experiment this is something (I guess) worth trying. Personally I would not waste the time or the ingredients.
 
A couple of things I see. You pitched approximately 4 times the amount of yeast that would normally be used. Without knowing the characteristics of the yeast your ideal fermentation temperature is a WAG. (wild ass guess) You seem to have gotten something drinkable, but I think your chances of getting something terrible with this procedure is very high.

If you are willing to experiment this is something (I guess) worth trying. Personally I would not waste the time or the ingredients.

This is shooting from the hip brewing for sure, but without knowing yeast characteristics, one can still apply experience and common-sense. I did contemplate on the pitch rate, and my rationale was that the right amount of *dry* yeast for the batch would have been around 10g. When reconstituting dry yeast, the recommended amount of water for a sachet is 10 times the dry weight, or 1dl, which makes a total of 110g. slurry.
In my case, I pitched 44g. of *fresh* baker's yeast, which is about half the weight of a sachet rehydrated dry yeast, but as the fresh baker is also more compact and not runny, I judged the amount to be about right. I also didn't just totally WAG the fermentation, but put it through a generic ale regime at a temperature that most known ale yeasts will produce good beer with.
As you would understand on reading through the thread, I was not overly confident it would turn out as drinkable as it actually did. That already says something about a willingness to experiment and an outlook that ending up with a bad batch has not necessarily been a waste of time or ingredients.
Cheers --yfb--
 
I applaud your non-dogmatic approach. I've had good results and some less than ideal but not terrible results with bread yeast. Matter of fact I anticipate being on an episode of basic brewing radio soon with a bread yeast experiment. What a timely post!
 

thanks mvktr2!
Would you mind posting links here to any of your own posts relevant to this subject, and when you have one, for the basic brewing podcast?
Cheers --yfb--
 
I use bread yeast for mead all the time. I buy the big brick of yeast from Costco and keep it in the freezer. 1 Tbs yeast, 1 Tbl sugar i a cup of 100* water, let set for 15 minutes. Pitch. Mead comes in at 10-15% on a regular basis. I was shooting for a 6 maybe 7% and had too much honey. Still came out at 10%. Oh well.
Cheers
 
ueastfornrains my other experiences were a first go because I couldn't find my packet of dry yeast for a small batch. I pitched three tablespoons into a 1.33 gallon batch and fermented the blonde ale at a steady 60 degrees. The fleishmam's quick rise yeast was from a fresh brick that was far from expired. The brew was excellent. Gave me real hope for bread yeast as a reliable alternative.

As for the new experiment I brewed multiple batches and tested multiple pitching rates. I'll save the results and full experiment for the show.
 
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