Has anyone used a bread maker to re-hydrate dry yeast?

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slowjeep

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Ok, this might be a bad idea, but it seems viable. My wife just bought a breadmaker ($7 at a thrift store). It has a dough function where it the beater stirs around and then it heats gently to help dough rise. I am not the best at re-hydrating my yeast. Sometimes I forget and pitch cold yeast. I keep my dry yeast in the fridge, and have had some slow starts to fermentation.

So, my idea is to make a small starter and let the bread machine go through the dough cycle. Maybe restart it a few times after it is done "kneading." Today I am just making Apfelwein, so the starter would be apple juice+dextrose.

Please, let me know if this is a bad idea. Thanks!
 
I have never tried that and I do the same thing when I use dry yeast and always have slow starts. My last batch I bought some yeast nutrient. I added 1tsp to the last 10 mins of the boil (for a 5 gal batch). Huge difference, it was bubbling within 6 hours. Ill be using this stuff for all my batches now.
I know your question was about the breadmaker, which I have no idea if that would work. Just thought I would throw in an easy solution to a similar problem I had.
 
The bread machine sounds like a lot of work, especially keeping the yeast solution sanitized. I think it's easier to simply hydrate dry yeast prior to pitching, or use a low-cost stir plate with the liquid yeast.

I just started using the stir starter and have to say it works great considering the $45 cost. Very simple machine.
http://www.stirstarters.com/
 
Plus 1 on the stir plate w liquid yeast. I use that 99 percent of the time unless I get very lazy. Definately worth the money.
 
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