Making bread with ale yeast

[Focus]

So are there any brewing cooks (or cooking brewers) out there that have accomplished this successfully. I've seen several beer bread recepies that call for beer added as the liquid mixing agent - and I've tried a couple to varing degrees of success - but what about using actual brewers yeast to make your bread rise rather than bakers yeast that you wouldn't let get within a mile of your beer. I'm imagining a bread that smells and tastes like yummy, yeasty, foamy beer that's at the peak of fermentation at about 3 days or so.

Certainly this has been discussed before, so if someone can point me to the thread... much appreciated.

Focus

PS. Please provide credentials to establish your creadibility as both a brewer and a cook.

 

[Arneba28]

Credentials. Full time Asst. Chef last 8 years in Italian/ Greek restaurants...Bad idea...brewers yeast #1 not good at baking temps
#2 alcohol in bread....normally the small amount that is created will bake off and leave little residual taste.. brewers yeast will I believe..
#3 brewers yeast is more expensive then baking yeast...why bother

 

[Danek]

I tried making pizza dough with yeast I harvested from a primary. It tasted interesting, in a good way, but didn't rise particularly well. Not sure I'd bother trying it again. Bread yeast makes better dough.

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

i've made plenty of beer bread (i try to make 1 loaf per new beer i make, so far the more flavor the better the bread) haven't used brewers yeast to make bread yet. It shouldn't be that far from normal bread bakers use to get their yeast from brewers.....

The guys on basic brewing radio did a test. A small beer batch with bread yeast and a small loaf of bread with brewers yeast. They didn't notice much difference in either. I lay that blame with the fact that he used a clean yeast in the bread instead of something more flavorable.

 

[Focus]

interesting inputs. I trust the resident chef, but I still think I'll give it a try sometime. The follow up quetion would be how much?

How much brewers yeast (both packet o' dry muntons & White Labs liquid vial) is equivalent to one pack/one loaf's worth of Fleischmans.

I don't expect that it'll be all that stellar - and that I'm better off using the actual beer in the bread - but I like to experiment...

 

[PseudoChef]

Credentials. Full time Asst. Chef last 8 years in Italian/ Greek restaurants...Bad idea...brewers yeast #1 not good at baking temps
#2 alcohol in bread....normally the small amount that is created will bake off and leave little residual taste.. brewers yeast will I believe..
#3 brewers yeast is more expensive then baking yeast...why bother

In your #1 do you mean doesn't like high temps during proofing or something?

Also, your #2 doesn't make any sense. Both bread and beer yeast (they are the same organism, after all) will be capable of making alcohol.

 

[BigKahuna]

I make pretzels from the yeast cake after bottling.
When it gets really good...is when you bottle one batch..and brew another on the same day. I use a good handful of the brewing grains in a whole wheat bread dough..and instead of yeast from the jar, I just scoop about a cup or 2 of the yeast cake into the bread.

Comes out fantastic...but you need to eat it while it's hot...Like We'd ever give it time to cool.

 

[BleedsDogFish]

Would you make beer with bread yeast??

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Credentials: read the forum (lots of food recipes, not hard to find my brew-related posts)

I know I've read an article on the subject, and I wish I could find the source. Basically, it stated that most brewer's yeast isn't tolerant of high temperatures and works less aggressively than baking yeast. Baking yeast works fast to ferment the sugar present in bread dough, making it rise. When placed into the oven, the yeast go into a hyperactive state before dying from heat exposure, creating the fluffy texture found in most bread. Brewer's yeast will result in longer rise times and a denser texture due to the fact that the yeast will cease activity at a much lower temperature.

I made one batch of bread with brewer's yeast, and I found that to be exactly the case. It wasn't very good bread at all. I'm sure you could have some success with it, but it's quite expensive, and the results may be disappointing.

With regard to the ester flavors produced by some strains of brewer's yeast, I don't think they'll survive the baking process. Esters are alcohol based, and usually rather volatile. Baking will probably cause them to evaporate out of the bread, leaving little aroma or flavor behind. If you want banana and clove in your bread, add bananas and cloves.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

I make bread with beer yeast all the time. It is actually quite tasty, especially with a Hefe yeast (wlp320 I think). I've experimented with different ways of doing it. Everytime I've done it, it's been from a yeast cake so there's other "goodies" in the mix. I'll mix about 1/2c of the cake with 1c. warm water & 1c. flour basically making a sponge. I let that ferment for a day or two. Then I make bread with it as I would any other sponge. The best results are by adding some regular baking yeast to the dough to help with the rising. I have gotten the same amount of rise from the beer yeast, but it took a long time to do so, about 7hrs, compared to about 1.5hrs by adding a tsp. of baking yeast. The flavor of the beer yeast definitely present, and quite pleasant too!

 

[Yuri_Rage]

BC, that's a TON of yeast - I guess you can preserve some of the unique flavors by using a large amount of yeast. Sounds like a sound process - much better than the one I used (basically a simple substitution of brewer's yeast for baking yeast).

 

[Brewing Clamper]

BC, that's a TON of yeast - I guess you can preserve some of the unique flavors by using a large amount of yeast. Sounds like a sound process - much better than the one I used (basically a simple substitution of brewer's yeast for baking yeast).

Yeah, I tried using the standard amount of yeast the first time, which was something along the lines of 1Tbsp and it took forever to ferment and there wasn't much flavor to it. Another thing I forgot to mention though is that I only use about 1-1.5c of the sponge to 3c. of flour for the bread. The dough will look a bit brownish due to the beer yeast, but it makes some tasty bread... I'll take some pics next time I make some and post them...

 

[Hell Brew]

Here you go the experiment done for you.
Basic Brewing Beer Bread Experiment

 

[bob1852]

My brewing buddy and I have been making bread or pizza dough with the yeast after we move from primary to secondary....

just use "primary fermenter yeast" than you normally would use dry yeast. It doesn't rise as fast as pointed out, but for a thin crust pizza you don't need much rise. It did seem to have some effervescense that a normal pizza dough doesn't have.

Tried it with an IPA and the dough came out a little hoppy, but with a nut brown and an amber, the pizza came out great (or maybe we just had drank too many homebrews during the short process of moving from primary to secondary )

 

[niquejim]

It's easier to use beer for flavor and bread yeast for rising.

I've been a baker for 20+ years (yeah i feel old)

Beer yeast is designed to produce alcohol and CO2
Bread yeast is designed to produce CO2

 

[Aa760]

Old thread, but bringing it back. Just made some beer bread up with 1.5 cups of yeast slurry washed once and harvested from the NB brick warmer red ale. Supplemented the yeast with a pack of regular bread yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup Luke warm water mixed in with the slurry. Let that mix sit at room temp with some sugar for an hour or so to wake up the yeasties, and then used this slurry with additional liquid called for by the recipe with the flour, some honey, and other miscellaneous ingredients. Let the bread rise for 24 hours and baked in the oven. Turned out really good, and the coolest part was having a slice of the bread with a cold glass of the beer that was fermented with the same yeast (white labs Irish ale yeast- 004. Seemed fitting!) What an awesome organism- two processes, two outcomes, both tasty! Makes me want to do more experiments like this!

 

[CHefJohnboyardee]

I made a starter with US-05. Slow to ferment and very sour... I'd rather just bake a poulish with redstar active dry yeast and be on my way. I gave the starter away...

 

[OhSoHumuLonely]

Okay, reviving this sucker again! What if you use some yeast from high krausen or, at minimum, sometime mid-fermentation?

 

[el_fela]

I've been making bread with beer yeast. You need to wash the yeast a little (separate the beer and trub from the yeast) and then make a starter with flour. Works best mixed with bread yeast.

 

[rhys333]

I'm about to attempt bread making using beer yeast, seeing how I'm locked in quarantine and I'm about ready to climb the walls.

I'm planning to do the no-knead method that uses a 12-24 hour rest and would ordinarily use 1/4 tsp of dry yeast. No actual bread yeast availabe to me due to the crazy hoarders. However, I have yeast slurry in the fridge and a starter on the go for an upcoming brew.

Any suggestions on what I should do here? Slurry or starter liquid, and how much would be required? I'm thinking not much, considering the long rest period, but I really have no idea as I've never attempted this. Also, do a flour "starter" or just dump in the main batch and wait 24 hours?

Appreciate your advice...

 

[angeb]

I'm about to attempt bread making using beer yeast, seeing how I'm locked in quarantine and I'm about ready to climb the walls.

I'm planning to do the no-knead method that uses a 12-24 hour rest and would ordinarily use 1/4 tsp of dry yeast. No actual bread yeast availabe to me due to the crazy hoarders. However, I have yeast slurry in the fridge and a starter on the go for an upcoming brew.

Any suggestions on what I should do here? Slurry or starter liquid, and how much would be required? I'm thinking not much, considering the long rest period, but I really have no idea as I've never attempted this. Also, do a flour "starter" or just dump in the main batch and wait 24 hours?

Appreciate your advice..

I’m not sure if this will be of any help as I was in your position last week , desperately googling to try and find out how to use the stuff from beer to make bread , quantities, timings etc... which is how I found this site!
I have no clue about beer making (I’m more of a bread maker) but my husband did a courage beer kit and I grabbed hold of (what I now know is called) the trub. I looked at some you tube videos and used boiled cooled water to flush it out of the large tub he used (for the first stage) and into a jug , left it settle for 15-30 mins until the yeast was settling at the bottom then poured off as much watery beer as I could and repeated . Then I put it in the fridge overnight and the yeast was very pale and more cake like so it was easy to pour the remaining liquid off the top. I had no idea how active it was at this point. I had read that people made a sponge with the yeast and flour ( as I do with my sourdough starter) the night before and give it 12 hours etc. It was morning, so I thought I would use 60g of the ‘yeast cake/sludge’ and add it to 60g flour and 60g luke warm water and I could keep an eye on it to judge how active it was. In under an hour it was bubbling away madly, ready to go! So I added the rest of my bread ingredients there and then and popped it in the electric mixer to knead. Then proof. It only took an hour to double in size ... About the same speed as dried yeast ! I knocked it back slightly then 30 -45 mins in loaf tins then I baked. They were lovely . they were seeded whole meal loaves and they worked really well. soft crumb , delicious.
The following day I tried half the quantities (30g of each) to make our usual white sandwich loaf. It was more dense, very edible but I preferred the seeded . I often use the Jim Lahey no knead overnight 1/4tsp yeast recipe . I will be interested to hear how it goes for you but would suggest you may not need as much yeast as I used and maybe pop it in the fridge to slow it down !
My husband has just completed the 2nd fermentation (?? Not sure if that’s what it’s called... moved it from the big barrel into bottles) so there is more yeast for me to try. It will be interesting to see if this responds the same way!
Hope you’ve managed to stay awake !! Apologies for the length!!

 

[mashpaddled]

Brewing yeast are selected for alcohol production while baking yeast are selected for CO2 production. You won't get the rise out of brewing yeast you will with baking yeast. Diastaticus strains of brewing yeast will metabolize starches better than non-diastaticus brewing strains but still, why not opt for baking yeast or building a native culture from flour that tend to be yeast capable of metabolizing starch?

 

[brewbama]

I just bought some ale yeast and in the package the vendor threw in a recipe card for milk bread and a cpl packs of 71B wine yeast. The recipe card called for this yeast.

 

[Seamonkey84]

Since bread yeast wasn’t available for a few weeks. I’ve made several batches of no knead bread using some Lalvin d47/71B wine yeast. They all raised well overnight, and I made a starter/levain from the first batch that I’ve been using for subsequent loafs. Now that I’ve gotten some bakers yeast, at least with no knead breads, I can’t see a difference. That’s prob due to the long rise time and requires minimal yeast to start with.