# The Bread Yeast Experiments



## seth8530

Ok, we have all heard the story that bread yeast is useless for fermenting sugars into drinking alcohol because the bread yeast would get so drunk that it dies before it can create a beverage that is much higher than say 8 percent alcohol.

Well Leanne claims she was able to ferment sugar water to 20% plus by step feading the yeast, So i of course am gona try and see if i can replicate the results. I myslef have seen bread yeast ferment way higher than one should expect so im all game for this experiment.

Procedure: (1) fill a gallon sized container 3/4 of the way up with sugar water untill i get a potential alcohol of 10 percent. ( 1.075 for all of yall specific gravity folks) 

(2)add in a ground up B 100 complex vitamen
(3) pour in the bread yeast starter ive made
(4)Once the fermentation starts crawling take a gravity reading and pour in a cup and a half more suga. Take a new reading afterword and keep track of all readings so that a final alcohol can be determined.


How does this sound to yall? any recomendations or suggestions?


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## Runningwolf

Are you sure you're not one of Troy's lost sons? Anxious to here what you come up with. The only differance is if Troy was doing this he would have it all drunk before the end of the experiment . May the forces be with you!


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## arcticsid

HEY!!!!!! I resemble that remark!

The most scariest thing abut Seth is that he was considering majoring in Nuclear Physics!!

God Save The Queen!!! LMFAO ROTF GFA!


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## arcticsid

Seth.

STOP RIGHT NOW!.

Look up Kilju on the internet and follow the recipe.

Kilju is a basic sugar water that is a Finnish wine. Typically Sometimes a bit of Lemon or Lime Juice is added. most say it tastes like sheet. Yes, it will work, and yes, this is what Leanne claimd she was able to feed to over 20% by Chaptilizing it, look that up too.

You dont just arbitrarily add sugar. You need to wait till it gets down to about 1.020 before you add sugar, and it needs to be dissolved first! And dont add a ton of it.

Want dont you just go and buy some frozen juice concentrate, use some real wine yeast, preferably champagne yeast and see how high you can get.......................................it?

Geeze Louise!

This is a wine making forum, not a science experiment forum! Not that I fault you at all for experimenting.

Enough already!

Vitamins? We call that yeast nutrient, it too is quite cheap!


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## Wade E

Bread yeast can easily ferment out sugar but it usually has a low threshold for abv which means it usually stops around 12% unless babying it with chaptalization which is the means of adding sugar while fermenting gradually so as not to over expose your yeast to too much sugar all at once.


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## seth8530

I plan on using bread yeast because i want to see exactly how much alcohol it is good for. Alot of us have good idea's but no real solid numbers... Ive made sugar alcohol before and its not the worlds best tasting stuff lol but im trying to replicate her results. 

maybe troy can get her to poke her nose in her and shed some light on her method.

Im gona look up on the specifics on step feeding. I havnt made a wash yet. Im actually plannin this one out guys!


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## arcticsid

I already told you what she did!!!! Start at around 1.080 or soething, juice sugar water, grapes, dog pee, what ever, when it gets down to around 1.020 add about a cup o dissolved sugar water. Measure the SG. getit down to the same, 1.020 or something, add another cup[ of dissolved sugar. You could ask her yourself but she is the one who told me his.

End of story!!!


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## Wade E

I make sugar alc all the time but do something else with it after its been fermented wink wink!


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## Runningwolf

Wade E said:


> I make sugar alc all the time but do something else with it after its been fermented wink wink!


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## seth8530

ahh, ull use that as my procedure then haha. How much sugar was would you start with if ur using a gallon sized cooker


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## Wade E

I make 6 gallon batches of (Sugar water) and use approx 10-12 lbs as adding making it with 2 high an sg makes for a not so pleasant taste and is harder to get it back to tasteless.


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## seth8530

What percent alc are you bringing it to usually?


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## arcticsid

wrong forum buddy. we make wine and beer rhere. see the PM section.


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## seth8530

nah, i just wanted to figure out how high he was able to bring the sugar wine. I should of specified.


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## arcticsid

I'm not yelling at you buddy. You know as well as I do some in hee experiment and its just not something to discuss.

Leanne said she was able to get her kilju up to over 20% with bakers yeast.

The key is not to add it all at once, and once te SG comes down as mentioned, take a cup of sugar,dissolve it, of course and stir it in. I have no reason to doubt her, she has been doing this way longer than you or I.

Remenber, she said she did this with bread yeast! Personally, I would use champagne yeast. In fact I think, and I am not sure, that this turbo yeast, may even be able to get higher.

They do say however, once you start pushing15%, you are really going to jeaoperdize taste for alcohol, so don't take an otherwise wonderful wine, and screw it up by making rocket fuel out of it!!


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## seth8530

yah, the reason why im not step feeding the milk wine any higher than 17 percent is that i dont watn something nasty.... i would use some champaigne yeast if i wasnt so interisted in finding out the exact breaking point of bread yeast.

Their are some turbo yeast which claime to be good for up to 24 percent, but i dont think that the alcohol produced would be good for anything but being proccessed into motor fuel lol


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## Wade E

That Turbo yeast leaves a nasty taste in the wine and is *VERY* to get rid of!


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## seth8530

yea, ive heard that before. What would you describe the taste as? Is it somthing more than just "hot"


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## Wade E

Very acidic as there is a lot of acid in there. There is everything in there for a fermention including nutrients.


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## xanxer82

Wade E said:


> I make sugar alc all the time but do something else with it after its been fermented wink wink!



Something that goes into a mason jar?


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## arcticsid

I think they are refering to canning something.


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## xanxer82

I think you're right Troy!


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## Roatan_Mark

Have fun experimenting! I have found that a certain bakers or bread yeast can go as high as 13.545% ABV with just plain fermentation, no special handling required. I only know this because out of desperation and not receiving my yeast in a timely manner I forced myself to use this yeast on hand. For my particular wine made here I find it satisfactory and will continue to use it in that same recipie (it actually imparts a DESIRED taste). I have searched all around the net and it seems the ONLY reason I could find to not use it is the low alcohol tolerance, but it was right on target for me! Drove the must to .993 after one full month. Primary for 7 days and racked into secondary for 23 more days, initial was 1.098.... And to boot my results have so far after several batches of 5 gallons each have been predictable and consistent. yes I know most winemakers will rebutt this and most say NEVER use bread yeast, but what is the other reasons? I have consistency and ABV I target for, what else? Maybe it is the one thing that is taking my wine longer to settle and clear.... Ok... I can live with that. But yes I use wine yeast in other recipies because the bread yeast did not perform well.....hmmm...maybe someone ought to write a book? Lol


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## seth8530

That is pretty much on target with what ive heard from distillers. That bread yeast is a lot stouter than most people give it credit for. It might be my imagination but whenever i use bread yeast in my hooch washes it seems to impart at "bready" taste. Who knows maybe im crazy


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## Luc

Bread yeast will do better as you would expect from most stories.

However bread yeast has a bad name just because people used it as kids to make some wine with and at that time did not have the expertise they have now.

I did an experiment in which I made two exact the same wines from exact the same must (apple juice with sugar and some added acid).
Both wines finished dry and both had a distinct different taste. That is because yeast will bring flavors to a wine.

The story is still pending for being published on my weblog as I followed fermentation all through the process to exactly see were the differences were. However there is always something else coming up.......

However the end result was so that I have used bread yeast many times after that experiment.

From my own experiences upto now I can honestly say that all horror stories on breadyeast are pure nonsence and due to making wine with bad winemaking practices.

Luc


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## artyboy

I've used bread yeast in a few wines. I've never ended up with any kind of bready taste and it's always finished quite dry. I've only used it in cheap wine (ie wine from frozen fruit juice concentate) so I've never expected a whole lot out of it. I might try it in some real wine just to see how it turns out. I agree with Luc. It's all about your process. The yeast certainly has an impact on the flavor but it's a lot more subtle than a lot of people try to make it out to be. The fruit and the rest of the recipe are going to have a much bigger impact.


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## woodsxdragon

artyboy said:


> I've used bread yeast in a few wines. I've never ended up with any kind of bready taste and it's always finished quite dry. I've only used it in cheap wine (ie wine from frozen fruit juice concentate) so I've never expected a whole lot out of it.



For sure... i made some.. hence the RIP in my signature... it tasted like bread not wine. it was a depressing waster. so sad.


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## Roatan_Mark

I don't see any RIP in your signature woodsxdragon. Anyway, after backsweetening some mango wine i do sense a bit of a bread yeast but after it settled out again I find that taste is in the lees not in the actual wine. Would I use the lees in anythign else, no, simpy put why would I since bread yeast is easy to get world wide. I even had some recent batches of mango come out to >.990 finished (my hydrometer stops at .990), then had to backsweeten, this is 17.2% ABV!!! So where is the problem? I can see this not working out for some other wines with sensitive or weak taste in the first place as it may overpower it. Quite frankly I don't know at this point since it has worked out for me rather well so far.


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