Yeast question

[stevesbeer]

Friend of mine used bread yeast in an English Ale recipe and found the results to be pretty good. I didn't think you could use bread yeast due to it reacting too fast. His OG was 40 and FG was around 15 he thinks in about 7 days. He let it sit in his fermenter a week more. I haven't tasted it yet but wouldn't it ruin the beer using bread yeast?

 

[ChshreCat]

It'll ferment, but you're going to get some funky off flavors from it. Better to just get a packet of proper yeast if you're going to brew.

 

[stevesbeer]

Yea...maybe taste like wet bread! It amazes me how different yeasts have different flavors...I thought their only purpose is to turn sugar into alcohol. How can that process taste different each time? ( I didn't do to well in chem classes either )

 

[davebl]

Different yeast release different byproducts from fermentation. There are some Basic Brewing podcasts on this topic. They made bread with brewing yeast, and beer with bread yeast. Both came out well.