Anyone Ever Brewed With Bread Yeast?

[lpa]

Goodevening. Look, I know my house is about to be bombarded by a massive squadren of locusts armed with nukes, but, y'know, I thought I'd ask a silly question. I'm in the mood to brew a quickie and, well, roger me with a giant beanstalk if my fridge wasn't utterly bereft of yeast (pardon my French), yet I know my fair wife keeps baking yeast in the pantry. I know the thoughts going through my head are all wrong, but ah, the brew must go on, right? Anyone ever brewed with bread yeast? Sorry for asking etc. The tin is a Lion Real Ale and I'm just gonna use dextrose with it.

I should introduce myself: LPA are my initials and I reside in the northernmost island of the strange land across the ditch. I'm back brewing after a 10 year lapse and loving every minute of it, much to the enduring sadness of aforementioned wife. I'm an amateur but have just started taking steps to improve my brews, notably cold conditioning, bulk priming, and most importantly I think, temp controlled fermenting. They're getting better and better. Next time it's gonna be some hops (maybe Saaz) and some pale dry-malt with a Cooper's Real Ale to see what that can do. Anyway, cheers.

 

[dreamboat]

Lion as in Lion Red?

If so, it doesn't matter what yeast you use, it will be shite anyway!



Splash out $3 or $4 at your LHBS for a proper yeast, it won't matter if you don't pitch until tomorrow (if you are already that far along), just aerate again, and it's all good.



dreamboat

 

[Pumpy]

This wont help you but I have made perfect bread with brewers yeast !!!!!


Pumpy

 

[tangent]

i was once told that one strain of ale yeast is infact the same yeast that bakers use
i've never tasted a beer made from it though

 

[bindi]

This wont help you but I have made perfect bread with brewers yeast !!!!!


Pumpy

[post="103282"][/post]​

Yeah that worked for me, Thanks for the tip Screwtop, beer yeast makes good bread and not the the other way round.

 

[Guest Lurker]

I made a kit beer with bread yeast in my early brewing efforts. It tasted fine compared to the other kit beers I was making.

 

[wee stu]

Slightly tangental, but - has anyone brewed using the "brewer's yeast" sold in health food shops?

 

[mongo]

Guest Lurker Posted Today, 07:34 PM
I made a kit beer with bread yeast in my early brewing efforts. It tasted fine compared to the other kit beers I was making.

Really - or are you just saying that your kit beers didn't taste very nice

I am very interested to hear further comments on your experiement GL.

The others who have posted here saying that bread yeast does not make good beer, have you tried it? If so, could you post your comments about what it tastes like? If not, is it right to discourage someone trying something a bit new? I for one would be interested to see what the resulting beer tasted like.

So... to cut a long post short:
I reckon Go for it GL (EDIT - GL = LPA)!

 

[Guest Lurker]

I am very interested to hear further comments on your experiement GL.

[post="103311"][/post]​

The notes, such as they are, are
Here

Reading back it seems we couldnt pick a problem with flavour, but the yeast was slow to flocculate. Back at that stage a mate and I had no knowledge of beer making or drinking, were brewing a kit a week and they were being drunk within 4 weeks of bottling.

 

[deebee]

No personal experience on this but I have read the same posts mongo refers to and I just wouldn't do it unless I was in prison.

I put too much love into brew day to risk spoiling my beer with one step that could have been easily avoided.

 

[mongo]

So... to cut a long post short:
I reckon Go for it GL!

oops - meant "Go for it LPA!"

yeah deebee, I agree - I wouldn't take the risk of brewing with bread yeast, but if someone else is sitting on the fence about it, I am keen to tip them over so that I can hear the stories!

It's where the glory is - experimentation and testing. The fact that beer brewed with bread yeast was drinkable is fascinating to me.

 

[mongo]

oh, and thanks for the link to your site GL. It was a good read.
The rest of your website was pretty entertaining and comprehensive too!
I didn't click the link to make your heads explode of course. Who would be so sick as to want to see that?

 

[tangent]

if i was taking the 5minutes to throw a can of goo and a kilo of whatever in a fermenter, wtf, throw in whatever you want.
best time to experiment
if, you've got up early to grind your malt by hand for 1/2 an hour etc... don't do it





as often

 

[bradmcm]

Slightly tangental, but - has anyone brewed using the "brewer's yeast" sold in health food shops?

[post="103309"][/post]​

No, because it is dead yeast.
They usually have a sticker on it saying so and it can't be used for homebrewing. At least that's what is on the stuff that is sold in the hippy section of my local supermarket.

 

[Mr Bond]

Why wasn't a yeast sachet provided with the can you bought?,seems a bit odd.
Wait until you can get to a brewshop or get the shop that sold u the can to supply some free.

 

[lpa]

Cheers fellas. Um, the Lion extract is in fact from Lion Breweries and cos I'm using a cutesie (don't shoot) 11.5l fermenter won in newspaper comp from Mac's Brewery (nz's orginal 'big' boutique that makes, incidently, the world's most flavourless lager) I've been splitting cans (oh my god) or doing double can equivalents (great success with BlackRock Wheat this month, though a little flat - but hey, I like it that way) so I've got this fairly evil $9.50 tin to deal to and of course I've been using extra sachets, hence the problem. This is my final brew before strapping on a serious brewer's helmet, pads and gloves so, gulp splutter, I'm gonna throw in the bread yeast (if it doesn't take too well, at least there's another 10 sachets in the little, affordable box!) and I'll let you know what it's like in about 2 weeks (I can't help tasting the brew at every stage). I'd just like you to know I'm not doing this for the attention. Getting your kit off and running down the street is much easier. Anyway, thanks for the feedback, colonial cousins!

 

[Hewie_NZ]

I have used bakers yeast when I was making home made spirits using a home made still. They can be made with commercial yeasts and white sugar for a 'base spirit' to which flavour is added. I used a more traditional approach with bakers yeast and dark cane sugar for a light rum - which turned out pretty well. Got about 10% abv with the yeast, but unlike beer I didn't drink the raw product - it all went through the still.

cheers,
Hewie

 

[Screwtop]

In the 60's I made an English Avon Ale from bakers malt and molasses and used compressed bakers yeast from the Mauri Brothers and Thompson yeast factory in Toowoomba. Yeast farming HB'ers would love to visit that facility, silo breeding producing tons of yeast daily. Anyway, believe it or not the only hops available from the grocer then were dried hop flowers, better availability than today, all grocers seemed to stock them. Open fermented in a large plastic garbage bin. The stout was so so. No doubt using one of the great brewing yeast strains available today would have produced a much better brew. Using brewers yeast in bread, the difference in flavour is minimal, the other way round not so.

 

[Agarn]

Cheers fellas. Um, the Lion extract is in fact from Lion Breweries and cos I'm using a cutesie (don't shoot) 11.5l fermenter won in newspaper comp from Mac's Brewery (nz's orginal 'big' boutique that makes, incidently, the world's most flavourless lager) I've been splitting cans (oh my god) or doing double can equivalents (great success with BlackRock Wheat this month, though a little flat - but hey, I like it that way) so I've got this fairly evil $9.50 tin to deal to and of course I've been using extra sachets, hence the problem. This is my final brew before strapping on a serious brewer's helmet, pads and gloves so, gulp splutter, I'm gonna throw in the bread yeast (if it doesn't take too well, at least there's another 10 sachets in the little, affordable box!) and I'll let you know what it's like in about 2 weeks (I can't help tasting the brew at every stage). I'd just like you to know I'm not doing this for the attention. Getting your kit off and running down the street is much easier. Anyway, thanks for the feedback, colonial cousins!

[post="103413"][/post]​

That's the spirit LPA. I've often wondered whether bakers yeast would work. One piece of advise. If the yeast has been stored in the cupboard, I'd start it in a coffee cup first just in case it's inactive.

 

[Tseay]

When I were a lad, Bakers Yeast was all we had - check out the following recipe


I was going through some junk from my parents place and came across an old Olinda fermenter that I bought my father for a birthday present.

Inside was my original homebrew recipe from the late 60's which we made with some success. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

4lb Brown Sugar
2lb Cornwall's malt Extract.
Tandaco Yeast. ( use only 1 of 4 sachets)
Citric Acid ( 1oz pkt) .. but use only one teaspoon
1 Tea spoon salt
1 IXL Hops ( comes in 8oz pachkt but only 4 oz to this recipie)
Parisian Essence

Process

1. Put 4 oz of hops into stocking - break up hops in stocking a bit.
2. Put stockinged hops into 1 gal water with 1teaspoon salt, bring to boil and boil vigorously for 35-40 minutes.
3. then remove and do away with the hops refuse in the stocking, and pour remainig liquid onto the following ingredients which are in the bottom of a 10 gal plastic garbage can -

4lb of sugar
2lb Malt Extract
1 Teaspoon citric acid
1 Teaspoon Parisian essence

4.Add sufficient water to make up to atotal of 5 gals. It is important be not chilly nor warm, but just tepid or otherwise the yeast action will be effected.

5. Remove from the top the froth which will hve resulted from pouring in the water, then sprinkle Tandaco yeast over top.

6. Put lid on garbage can.


At the end of each 24 hours thereafter remove the froth and/or scum from the top of brew: continue doing so until no further froth or scum remains - not less than 5 days and unlikely to be more than 10 days.

After brewing action complete Bottle with 1teaspoon of sugar to each bottle.

Seal bottles and store for at least 2 weeks; 4 weeks are better.

This recipie originated from the lab i used to work in, sometime in the 60s. it produced an acceptable beer at the time.

I have no idea what hops IXL used but guess POR would be OK. For nostalgia's sake I will make a batch once I have adequate supplies of current production.

Does anyone else have any old recipes to share.

Cheers