# Bread yeast wine



## freewolfman

sometimes I had to use bread yeast in making wine because I can't find wine yeast...it's alcoholic concentration exceed 10% not as they say it die in 5% but the real problem is the bready taste of wine but I read that It may decreased by adding activated charcoal and stir every 3-4 hours for one or two days then filter it to catch the charcoal particles but I didn't try this method yet
also I noticed that the taste of wine depends on the juice used and it would be acceptable when I ferment mead but with malt it would be harder
did anyone try bread yeast before and can tell me what's his experience and which juice will give the best taste results


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## JohnT

I think that most here would advise against the use of bread yeast. 

Bread yeast is engineered to activate quickly and ferment for only as long as it takes to have bread rise. It is also not resistant to a number of fermentation problems, namely yeast break down. 

Go on the internet. Good, quality wine yeast is cheap (anywhere from $1 to $2). 

I would let you wine age for a number of months. Make sure to rack you wine a couple of times to remove the yeast sediment. You may find that the bread flavor may fade. 

Do not use charcoal. You may filter a lot of the flavor components that you would prefer to keep.


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## BernardSmith

Not certain but I think that bread yeast will not flocculate (gather and drop out of suspension) in quite the same way that wine yeasts do. So what that means is that the yeast will remain in suspension and that then suggests that it will quite difficult to produce a bright clear wine.


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## wineforfun

The only time I have used bread yeast was when making JAOM(Joe's Ancient Orange Mead).


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## freewolfman

wineforfun said:


> The only time I have used bread yeast was when making JAOM(Joe's Ancient Orange Mead).



I tried JAOM before but its taste was spicy and I can't drink it before fermentation  so I hadn't continued


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## freewolfman

BernardSmith
not as you think....see this picture..can you find any difference

http://bp2.blogger.com/_qBJ_W3EIoXc/Rt3JW_aUicI/AAAAAAAAANw/cqwTYIO7mkc/s1600-h/klaarglas.jpg

OK,the baker's yeast wine is on the right side


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## freewolfman

JohnT said:


> I think that most here would advise against the use of bread yeast.



read this comparison between wine yeast and bread yeast wines and you'll change your mind....you'll find the english translation in the lower half of the site

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2010/10/bakkersgist-baking-yeast.html


it's quite good but I still need to improve the taste somewhat so I need the expert's advice


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## wineforfun

freewolfman said:


> I tried JAOM before but its taste was spicy and I can't drink it before fermentation  so I hadn't continued



I don't know what you mean "I can't drink it before fermentation"


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## freewolfman

wineforfun
I mean that I can't tolerate its taste when it still juice so I throw it and never ferment it at all


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## JohnT

freewolfman said:


> read this comparison between wine yeast and bread yeast wines and you'll change your mind....you'll find the english translation in the lower half of the site
> 
> http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2010/10/bakkersgist-baking-yeast.html
> 
> 
> it's quite good but I still need to improve the taste somewhat so I need the expert's advice



Nope.. just because his experiment went ok, does not mean what I said above is not true. If it were acceptable, perhaps you would not be having issues right now.

Wine yeast has been bred for centuries to possess the best qualities. All this for about $1 more than what you pay for bread yeast. 

If what this article said were true, then why don't any winemakers use it?


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## Goose

There seems to be positives and negatives about using bread yeast. I suppose if you have to use it, then maybe use fruits that have a strong flavor. Blackberries, red grapes, maybe plums or cherries? Or combination of? Could order wine yeast online and have it shipped to your door for free, sometime try ebay. Not sure how well a wine made with bread yeast would hold up in the bottle though? I suppose you could try it, drink it young if it's good, and hold a few bottles back and see how they age? Would be an interesting experiment if you have the extra fruit to experiment with? Maybe the bready/ yeasty flavors would mellow with time? Good luck!


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## Goose

Could try strong flavored fruits like blackberries, red grapes, plums, cherries, or a combination of? Could mellow out once it's bottled and ages a bit but you may end up with yeast in your bottles if you can't get it to clear completely before bottling. I wonder what kind of shelf life a bread yeast wine would have compared to one made with wine yeast? I would probably recommend ordering wine yeast. There are many online supply shops and enthusiasts on ebay that sell by the packet and have free shipping!

Good luck!


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## BernardSmith

I guess as a social scientist I am skeptical about any self published articles that have not been peer reviewed. I have no idea what variety of bread yeast luc has access to I doubt that it is Fleischman's so i have no idea how close his bread yeast is to the wine yeast he uses. I have no doubt that bread or beer or lager or wine yeast will ferment the sugars in fruit and honey but the question is whether the flavors they impart and enhance are the most appropriate flavors for the wines being produced. I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating... Me? I will continue to use yeasts cultivated for wine production and use baker's yeast for my bread baking (although I do sometimes use ale yeast when I make mead).


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## sdelli

I am soooo confused! Why would someone invest all their time and money into making wine and then flip bread yeast into it? Just my time is worth more then that.... Let alone the investment made into good fruit! I would have more faith in balloon wine....


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## JohnT

Sdelli/Bernard: 
My thoughts exactly. Just consider yeast breakdown and H2S issues. Do you honestly think that bread yeast will be as resistant as a cultivated wine yeast? Saving $1 on a packet of yeast is simply not worth the risk of the types of issues you can encounter.

Freewolfman:
We may be sounding a little harsh in this thread. My apologies, but we are passionate about wine and really want to see you avoid any major issues. We have all been there where all of the effort, money, and time resulted in something undrinkable. That is heartache in its truest form. We hate to see you go through that.


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## sour_grapes

It is possible that freewolfman lives in a locale that frowns upon winemaking....


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## BernardSmith

And also, like Luc, I don't see any harm in experimenting with bread yeast, but experimentation is very different from creating a set-up where you are controlling for a specific set of outcomes. Experimentation suggests that the outcomes are very open and what you are doing is controlling for the inputs. Much of the time - most of the time -- when I make beers or wines I am trying to control the outcomes. When I want to experiment I am quite prepared to consider the wine or beer I make to be all but undrinkable but the experiment must still be robust and useful .


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## JohnT

sour_grapes said:


> It is possible that freewolfman lives in a locale that frowns upon winemaking....


 

Perhaps the "Free" in freewolfman means that he is a guest of the state?


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## sour_grapes

JohnT said:


> Perhaps the "Free" in freewolfman means that he is a guest of the state?



I was thinking more along the lines that he lives in a state that is not free...


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## sdelli

I can agree with that... If you want to play mad scientist and see how it goes... Game on. But if you are truely trying to make a respectable product then this is not even a conversation...


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## jgross

This is kind of a closed minded thread who's to say the accepted way of using only wine yeast is the only way he produced viable evidence that it is possible to use bread yeast to make acceptable wine can anybody produce proven evidence where it's not


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## JohnT

jgross said:


> This is kind of a closed minded thread who's to say the accepted way of using only wine yeast is the only way he produced viable evidence that it is possible to use bread yeast to make acceptable wine can anybody produce proven evidence where it's not


 
First off. Welcome to the forum.

You should consider this... What may seem as "Closed Mindedness" to some just might be the "Voice of Experience" to others. 

It is totally within your power to either accept or ignore any advice that we offer. If you want to experiment with bread yeast, there is nothing stopping you. You are certainly not going to hurt my feelings if you want to embrace undue risk.

If an opinion is asked, I will answer it even if I run the risk of being called "closed minded". I offer opinions in the spirit of helping beginners avoid any potential problems. My only regret is that you may be steering beginners down a very bad road.

If you feel that bread yeast (bred to be a leavening agent) is every bit as good for fermenting wine as a yeast that was cultured over the centuries for that single purpose, then we will have to "agree to disagree".


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## rustbucket

I used bread yeast to make balloon wine a few times for dorm parties in the late 60's when I attended college. The recipe called for a mix of Welch's grape juice, sugar, and water in a gallon Almaden wine bottle. Then bread yeast was added and a balloon was attached over the mouth of the bottle. After a few days, when the balloon popped, the wine was deemed ready to drink.

It was yeasty, sweet, and fizzy but we lapped it up and convinced each other that it was great stuff.


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## sdelli

rustbucket said:


> I used bread yeast to make balloon wine a few times for dorm parties in the late 60's when I attended college. The recipe called for a mix of Welch's grape juice, sugar, and water in a gallon Almaden wine bottle. Then bread yeast was added and a balloon was attached over the mouth of the bottle. After a few days, when the balloon popped, the wine was deemed ready to drink.
> 
> 
> 
> It was yeasty, sweet, and fizzy but we lapped it up and convinced each other that it was great stuff.




Hey.... I did that too back in the 70's... Fun to watch... But back then all I wanted was alcohol... It was only about getting drunk.... Then sick!


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## BernardSmith

Just came across this podcast (a lot of chit chat) which contains an interesting experiment comparing the use of 71B and bread yeast to ferment a mead (orange blossom honey, I think). http://ec.libsyn.com/p/0/3/7/03778c...1ce3dae902ea1d06cc8636d0c15f4484&c_id=9571190


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## wineforfun

With all this said, bread yeast can have it's place. Look at JAOM for instance. I have made it a few times and it is a very unique, tasty mead. 

Now I am not saying bread yeast is an alternative to other wine yeasts, just that a very respectable drink can be had by it.


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## winetortoise

I have to say that when I used bread yeast with my last wine, there were several of these negative factors that I did not experience.

Firstly, the wine cleared up just fine and did not remain cloudy. Secondly, it continued fermenting for several weeks, and came to be quite dry if not completely dry, with a strong alcoholic kick. Thirdly, there just weren't any off-flavors from the wine; presumably because I made sure it was in a good temperature and took good care of the brew.

This blueberry strawberry-apple wine was 3 liters (0.8) gallons with 3 pounds of sugar. The finished product is almost utterly dry, with a faint faint sweetness in the aftertaste. Sour_Grapes tells me that the calculated SG would be 1.135, resulting in 19% alcohol if fermented to dry.

Now, perhaps it isn't quite completely dry, but it sure comes close. This is some of the strongest wine and most alcoholic smelling wine I've ever tasted. I doubt that it reached 19%, and I cannot do the math on my own, so I leave it to others to decide what the alcohol content should be. However, those were the amounts of ingredients I used, and it _did_ at least almost become dry, if not completely dry.

So, no off-flavors, no cloudiness, definitely NOT a low alcohol (I know for a fact that it is a few above 13%), and also the alcohol utterly destroyed any bready taste that might occur.

So, I have to say that based on experience, the bread yeast doesn't always have these negative qualities. It certainly did not stop fermenting alcohol at 13%, and it certainly does not taste sweet.


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