So I've heard of making bread with bread yeast, but has anyone tried it the other way around? I'm tasked with making bread for today, and I realized I have maybe a third of the yeast I need for my bread recipe. I do have packets of dry S-04 and S-05 beer yeast, plus some 1056 in the fridge from a batch I harvested. Can I use those to supplement the bread yeast and do I need to make any changes?
In Michael Jackson's Beer Companion, he writes that when Fritz Maytag took over Anchor they were brewing with baker's yeast.
I don't know if you can do that following normal procedures. I think brewing yeast is typically killed at a temp in the 90s, so you'd have to proof the bread at a fairly low temp. Then I'm not sure what off flavors might occur from letting the yeast work at a temp that might be above their normal fermenting temp. If you're in a pinch time-wise, try it and report back. I'd be curious to find out if it works.
I did it once many years ago, with oatmeal bread. It was old yeast so it didn't have a heck of a lot of oomph as I recollect. Usually, my first rise is an hour and a half using active-dry and this one was something like three or four hours. Still, I'm used to sourdough so three-four hours isn't a big deal. I can't remember what I was expecting but, anyway, it just tasted like normal oatmeal bread.
Suddenly reminded of camping with my family, as a kid. My Dad would dump a little bit of beer from his can, onto the campfire. The air would then smell so good for a few seconds, like bread baking.
Try it and report back. Have only used finished beer in bread, and it usually has a denser texture (beer bread). Heat will kill most yeast, you can kill your bakers yeast when proofing if you go over 120, so try it out and let us know. https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/baking-101/what-temperature-kills-yeast/
Not sure on this but hell give it a shot and let us know. I would love to hear how it came out and tasted. I am sure there are folks on here with knowledge of this and can chime in with facts, etc. Cheers and happy baking.
I used part of the yeast cake from a brew using US05 to make bread once just to see if the yeast would chew up pure starch and it worked just fine. I left it overnight however so I couldn't say how quickly it rose compared with a regular bread yeast. Tastewise the bread came out tasting a bit like soap due to the bitterness from the hops but that was half expected.
