Brewers yeast?

[NikZak]

SWMBO came home last night with a proud look on her face as she presented me with this package that she picked up at a healthfood store and as you might imagine I'm suspicious.

The contents are powder rather than the little "pellets" you normally find in active yeast packets but nowhere on the package does it imply that it is an inactive yeast.

What are your thoughts? Should I try making a starter from it and see if it's alive? Should I just toss a bit in her morning smoothie every day?

 

[manticle]

Health supplement. Not sure it has any living cells left in it. You could try it but I'd prefer to stick with a known, healthy strain.

Even if you can get it going, what style of beer will it suit? Altbier? Roggenbier? Witbier?

 

[glenwal]

What do you have to lose by trying?

You can always ferment out a small amount of wort in a coke bottle or something to see how it tastes, no need to step it up to a full batch size so you don't waste a batch.

You may have just found the best strain of yeast known to man (or maybe just a morning smoothy ingredient), but you won't know till you try.

 

[MHB]

It will have been killed, used to buy the same sort of thing in drums to feed to horses, most of it comes from big breweries who crop it off after fermentation and sell it to on-processers, it gets made into killed yeast, lased into yeast extract, made into vegemite, used in commercial baking (not as yeast)...

Funny enough the big brewers aren't really happy about selling live brewery yeast to the public, and other breweries, they can get downright protective of their yeast strains.

It will be as dead as a dodo but I'm sure someone will try it to find out.
Mark

 

[NikZak]

Fair enough folks, we'll pitch a tiny bit into a bottle tonight with some steeped water from the grains left over from the weekend of brewing and chuck a bit of sugar in there to get it to about 1.040 and see what (if anything) happens

otherwise, it'll end up bit by bit in her morning smoothie

 

[Tropico]

At that price you could put quite a bit in. It will be interesting to see if its alive or dead.

 

[NikZak]

Maybe a whole teaspoon in a 2L bottle?

 

[pcmfisher]

Used for making Lactation cookies.

 

[MHB]

Well we feed it to the stallions to up the sperm count, mixed in with lots of other stuff - so be careful you might need the lactation biscuits.
M

 

[mofox1]

Sage advice, MHB.

 

[warra48]

Fair enough folks, we'll pitch a tiny bit into a bottle tonight with some steeped water from the grains left over from the weekend of brewing and chuck a bit of sugar in there to get it to about 1.040 and see what (if anything) happens

otherwise, it'll end up bit by bit in her morning smoothie

And if it ferments, please tell us whether it is the packaged strain, wild yeast, or some infection doing the job.
MHB got it right.

 

[Bribie G]

Brewers yeast which is a good source of vitamin B was first turned into a "health food" in the USA in the 1920s as it was found to cure the persistent epedemic of pellagra among poor populations who lived mainly on cornmeal.

 

[NikZak]

I have my doubts that anything will happen to be honest... If any fermentation happens it'll be from the actual yeast, not wild bugs floating around, proper sanitation will be as always adhered to

I have many doubts both due to the cost and the appearance of the product as to it's efficacy as a 'brewers' yeast but hey, where would we be if people didn't try things? We certainly wouldn't have beer, imagine THAT world!

 

[Bribie G]

If it's dead yeast cells it's probably an excellent yeast nutrient if you chuck some in the boil. Some of our cousins on the other forum buy yeast hulls to help ferment their precursors.

 

[NikZak]

Hey that's not a bad idea... If I find it's not live yeast, stuff SWMBO, this bag of dead yeasties will be dinner treats for my live yeasties

 

[TimT]

Yeah typically dead. You won't get a starter from it unless it acts as a kind of nutrient for a wild yeast. Speaking of, do you remember that dubious story about people in the Northern Territory using Vegemite to back-engineer their own hooch - causing Nigel Scullion to call for it (ludicrously) to be banned? Well I read one report of another brewer trying to make his own Vegemite beer; he claimed it did work - so it sounds possible that, salt aside, that dead yeast really does act as an effective nutrient for some wild microflora.

 

[MHB]

Dead yeast is a decent nutrient for yeast, it isn't a complete food by any means, nor a balanced diet - very much soylent green for yeast.
If you want a yeast nutrient buy one made for the job, its relatively cheap and does a god job.
M

 

[NikZak]

Well the experiment has been done

I sparged the grains from the weekend brew with some boiled and cooled water, topped up until I had about 25 degrees, added a teaspoon or two of sugar to get the OG up to about 1.040 and pitched two full heaped teaspoons of the "brewers yeast" into it. Gave it a good shake, loosened the lid and put it in the Brewhouse. I'll report back tomorrow in about 12 hours to see if anything is happening.

 

[NikZak]

Three hours in and literally nothing is happening. The "brewers yeast" has fallen out of suspension and become a layer of trub at the bottom.

 

[manticle]

This is my surprised face.