supermarket bread yeast

[Empty bottle]

Has anyone ever used a bread yeast for their beer?
I was at my mates house tonight watching Scotland beat the Rep of Ireland at football and we were drinking some nice beer made with bread yeast from asda that cost just 70p for 56g. So i was wandering has anyone honestly made a brew using a beer yeast and a bread yeast and found any difference between them? Or do you simply buy beer yeast at £4 for 11g because the packaging says its great for beer?

 

[Braumeister]

Would be an interesting experiment to do. Personally I buy beer yeast as it’s made for beer to achieve the particular taste and clarity I’m looking for. You could make a hefeweizen with lager yeast but it wouldn’t be the same. You can make a lager with ale yeast etc. So I go with the yeast for the style I’m doing, my most recent one was a Proper Job clone so I used the yeast from a bottle of that, it didn’t cost me anything.

 

[foxy]

Has anyone ever used a bread yeast for their beer?
I was at my mates house tonight watching Scotland beat the Rep of Ireland at football and we were drinking some nice beer made with bread yeast from asda that cost just 70p for 56g. So i was wandering has anyone honestly made a brew using a beer yeast and a bread yeast and found any difference between them? Or do you simply buy beer yeast at £4 for 11g because the packaging says its great for beer?

I had a saison brewed by one of our club members where he used not only bread yeast(sour dough) but included bread in the mash. I go to a local bakery and get stale bread for free to make ground bait for fishing. So there is one cheap ingredient to start with. I would imagine you could use dry bread yeast as well. Or just look up Kvass an eastern European drink made with bread.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

This topic has been discussed here several times and as usual members views are split.

The second video skips straight to the tasting.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I think that basic brewing radio did an episode where they compared yeasts, and one of them was bread yeast. From what I recall, it came out pretty nice and had "Belgian" flavours in the beer

 

[Empty bottle]

Next week when i make another brew i am going to split my wort into 2 separate buckets and use my cheap supermarket bread yeast that i use to make my pizzas with into one bucket and my beer yeast on the other and see for myself . The beer that i was drinking last night very nice and made with bread yeast that cost about 15p to ferment 20 litres so it would be nice to try 2 beers from the same wort with 2 different yeasts and see if there is a difference.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

If you like clear beer I wouldn't bother as it flocculates very poorly. If you're not too fussed about floaters though, go ahead.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Next week when i make another brew i am going to split my wort into 2 separate buckets and use my cheap supermarket bread yeast that i use to make my pizzas with into one bucket and my beer yeast on the other and see for myself . The beer that i was drinking last night very nice and made with bread yeast that cost about 15p to ferment 20 litres so it would be nice to try 2 beers from the same wort with 2 different yeasts and see if there is a difference.

I'd be very interested in the results

If you like clear beer I wouldn't bother as it flocculates very poorly. If you're not too fussed about floaters though, go ahead.

Good to know. It would be good to see the side by side comparison visually too

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Bear in mind that historically there was no distinction between yeast for bread and yeast for beer - one the reasons for brewing was that it "created" yeast that was used in baking bread which "destroyed" yeast. The fact that baking consumes yeast but brewing doesn't is one reason why the sales of a company like Lallemand are >90% bread yeast with a bit of brewing yeast on the side.

So different baking yeasts work differently in beer - it seems that the Flesichman's which is the most common bread yeast in the US isn't great for brewing so that's why "the internet" thinks that bread yeast ain't great for beer. But IME the Allinson's that's most common in the UK works OK, flocculates OK, it's fine. Nothing special but it works.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

From Viking age brews

"Today Suomen Hiiva is the only Finnish producer of baker’s yeast, and its main product for consumers is a 1.8-ounce (50-gram) package of fresh compressed baker’s yeast. For most sahti brewers, this is the classic sahti yeast."

 

[Kentish Mike]

Next week when i make another brew i am going to split my wort into 2 separate buckets and use my cheap supermarket bread yeast that i use to make my pizzas with into one bucket and my beer yeast on the other and see for myself . The beer that i was drinking last night very nice and made with bread yeast that cost about 15p to ferment 20 litres so it would be nice to try 2 beers from the same wort with 2 different yeasts and see if there is a difference.

How did it go? I've been thinking of trying this myself, so curious what you found.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Bread yeast will take your beer dry, like below 1 dry. So bear that in mind

 

[An Ankoù]

Has anyone ever used a bread yeast for their beer?
I was at my mates house tonight watching Scotland beat the Rep of Ireland at football and we were drinking some nice beer made with bread yeast from asda that cost just 70p for 56g. So i was wandering has anyone honestly made a brew using a beer yeast and a bread yeast and found any difference between them? Or do you simply buy beer yeast at £4 for 11g because the packaging says its great for beer?

It's an experiment I've always wanted to carry out and never got round to it. Allinson's Easy Bake would be my choice for it's subtle esters etc. (joking there).
You shouldn't be paying £4 a packet for your yeast. Check out CML and see how quickly the discounts accrue when you order several packs.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Bread yeast will take your beer dry, like below 1 dry. So bear that in mind

I've chucked bread yeast into my OG sample and let it ferment out as a forced fermentation test. I've always seen it have a 70-80% attenuation and finished with a similar FG to ale yeast.

Basic brewing radio did a comparison with us05. The bread yeast finished 4 points higher than us05.
(OG 1.063, us05 finished at 1.010, and 2 different types of bread yeast both finished at 1.014).

 

[Cwrw666]

Perhaps brewing yeasts are more carefully produced than bread yeasts, so more variability may be expected with the latter.
I would think flocculation is more of an issue - I remember well the cheap kits of the early seventies, when you poured a beer you got loads of yeast in it. Then came the black box Boots kits (with real brewing yeast!) And what an improvement. All because the yeast stuck to the bottom of the bottle.

 

[Brewnaldo]

I've chucked bread yeast into my OG sample and let it ferment out as a forced fermentation test. I've always seen it have a 70-80% attenuation and finished with a similar FG to ale yeast.

Basic brewing radio did a comparison with us05. The bread yeast finished 4 points higher than us05.
(OG 1.063, us05 finished at 1.010, and 2 different types of bread yeast both finished at 1.014).

I have done some stuff with bread yeast that went super dry. That said, I wasnt looking to drink it per se, and hadnt hopped it.... So I cant speak to the taste

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Bread yeast will take your beer dry, like below 1 dry. So bear that in mind

As I say above - there's no such thing as "bread yeast" in the same way there's no such thing as "brewing yeast" - they're all different, they all have different "personalities" and you can't generalise.

As I say, my experiences with Allinson's worked pretty well, with "normal" attenuation.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Sahti is anything but a bone dry beer.

 

[Brewnaldo]

As I say above - there's no such thing as "bread yeast" in the same way there's no such thing as "brewing yeast" - they're all different, they all have different "personalities" and you can't generalise.

As I say, my experiences with Allinson's worked pretty well, with "normal" attenuation.

I guess like a lot of the questions on here, and one of the best things about this hobby.... Eventually someone has to be the one to just give a go.