# Bread Yeast vs Beer Yeast - What's The Difference?



## Let's Brew Beer (28/1/22)

They say you can brew beer with bakers yeast and it will turn out fine. Fact or Fiction? find out on this episode of Thirsty Thursday. 
Bread Yeast vs Beer Yeast - What's The Difference?


----------



## livo (28/1/22)

I'd say the answer is yes, you can brew beer with baker's yeast. Can you drink it? Again yes.

Is it a good idea and will it turn out fine. Probably not, but it works for other things, just not beer.

Watch this one.



Buy a few cans of Brigalow. That's what you get anyway, so I've found out.


----------



## MHB (28/1/22)

Well he doesn’t say it’s OK to use baker’s yeast for brewing, which is a good answer.

In bread making I suspect most yeast would work as it is just used to make the bread rise. The reverse is a seriously sill notion.
In brewing the yeast is very much a part of the beers flavour, at the extreme end the leading flavour i.e in a Hefe.
.
The old saying "_we make wort, yeast makes beer_" is very much a truism!
Mark


----------



## yankinoz (29/1/22)

That first vid does not reflect any actual experimentation. I'd call the second one inconclusive.

By hearsay I've often heard of beer brewers trying bread yeast once. Not twice.

My brother regularly used bread yeast to make wine from supermarket grape juice. It was very, very slow to settle out and left a lingering, unpleasant bitterness and strange aromatics.

But if you're curious, try it on a litre or two, then report back. Don't waste a full batch.

My betting odds: 70% the beer will suck, 29.9% it will be bearable, but not great, 0.1% you'll start a trend and want to stay with it.


----------



## JDW81 (29/1/22)

The other thing to consider with bakers vs brewers yeast is the conditions under which they are grown and packaged.

Brewers yeast is cultured as a single strain, in lab conditions, free from other contaminants/yeasts/bacteria, which arrives to your brewery as a sterile pack (aside from the yeast cells obviously). This yeast is also specifically grown for producing beer from wort, and has the requisite nutrients with it as well.

I can't confirm, but I suspect bakers yeast is not grown, packaged or stored under such strict conditions, and is probably contaminated with a bunch of other stuff (other yeasts/bacteria etc).

There's a few things I'm happy to save a few bucks on when it comes to brewing, yeast is definitely not one of them.

Can you make beer from bakers yeast, sure you can. You can also amputate a leg with a garden saw. Both are likely to end up the same way though, infected with something you don't want.

JD


----------



## JDW81 (29/1/22)

MHB said:


> The old saying "_we make wort, yeast makes beer_" is very much a truism!



Hence the reason I have that quote as part of my profile!!!


----------



## yankinoz (29/1/22)

Towelboy,

No more conjecture from us. Fill glass jug 2/3 full of wort and maybe a half packet of bread yeast, cover top with cling wrap and a rubber band, ferment and bottle carbonate. Test (cautiously). Report here.


----------



## livo (29/1/22)

Promoting one's own Youtube videos on forums is not a new thing. Some would call it out for what it is. There's a name for it, I'll leave that to the moderators.

On topic though, there are so many videos of similar "experiments" that it's a bit old.


----------



## yankinoz (29/1/22)

livo said:


> Promoting one's own Youtube videos on forums is not a new thing. Some would call it out for what it is. There's a name for it, I'll leave that to the moderators.
> 
> On topic though, there are so many videos of similar "experiments" that it's a bit old.



I missed the post's connection with Thirsty Thursday. Thanks. Guess he won't do the eperiment after all.


----------



## duncbrewer (1/2/22)

I'd say if the style calls for bakers yeast then use it for making your beer.
But as far as I know Finnish Sahti is the only beer using bakers yeast and this should come from Suomen Hiiva a Finnish producer of bakers yeast. It's sold fresh so not going to be that available to us in the southern hemisphere. Unless you are popping back from your winter skiing holiday in Ruka or suchlike.
Good chapter of info in Viking brews on Yeast and about this yeast.
I do remember using bakers yeast to make Ginger beer in my childhood, my real memory of that was bottle bombs!


----------



## livo (1/2/22)

I remember the ginger beer bottle bombs going off under the house.


----------



## Nick the Knife (1/2/22)

As Chris Rock said:


----------



## Let's Brew Beer (3/6/22)

livo said:


> Promoting one's own Youtube videos on forums is not a new thing. Some would call it out for what it is. There's a name for it, I'll leave that to the moderators.
> 
> On topic though, there are so many videos of similar "experiments" that it's a bit old.


please elaborate, the vast majority of my content is for beginners. I've never had any issues with moderators bar one in this forum. Thanks for commenting


----------

