Yeast Bread

[HogieWan]

Does anyone here make yeast bread?

Have you ever used yeast from a secondary or a couple bottles of homebrew?

I finally found a scientific paper about bread yeast (can't find it gain to link it though) that said that bread yeast is the same as ale yeast.

I'm thinking that I could collect the slurry from a couple bottles of homebrew after allowing the yeast to warm to room temp and mix that in with the dough and allow it to rise. Anyone see any problem with this method?

[Derekt2]

No worries. Some brewpubs use their beer yeast to rise pizza dough. I've even heard that some sue a small amount of spent grain to add character to it.

[HogieWan]

next question is - how much yeast do I need for a loaf of bread? a pizza crust?

[zoom6zoom]

I've been baking my own bread for many years. I use both yeast as well as a sourdough starter which I've had going for something like twenty years. I haven't personally used beer yeast but plan to do so once I start doing my own brews.

The amount of yeast you use for a recipe is pretty flexible. I usually use less than the amount specified in the recipe, but let it "proof" and grow a bit before mixing in the other ingredients. It's usually about a tablespoon of dried yeast in a quarter cup of warm water. I use a pinch of sugar and just a tiny bit of ground ginger, the yeast seems to like it. Usually end up with a bit over a quarter cup of nicely bubbling yeast before adding my other ingredients. Oh, yeah, bread yeast keeps well in the freezer. Found a jar in there last week with an expiration date of '98 - still worked great.

Pizza Port in Cali offers their pizza with a beer yeast crust... I've got to rate their pizza as some of the best I've ever had.

[zoom6zoom]

Here's a really easy recipe for a first time baker, it's very good too. Makes great toast.

Shaker Daily Loaf

2 packages fast-acting dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 3/4 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
5 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve the yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Warm the milk and melt the 3 tablespoons of butter in it. Stir in the sugar and salt and allow to cool to lukewarm.

Add this to the yeast bowl along with 3 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth with a mixer. Add the remaining flour and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Place the dough on a plastic counter and butter the top of the dough with about 2 tablespoons butter. Cover the dough with a very large stainless steel bowl and allow to rise until double in bulk.

Punch down and shape into 2 loaves for large loaf pans. Place in loaf pans, then again brush the top of the dough and allow to rise until double in bulk.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

[stronk]

I have made bread with homebrew yeast before. It is possible, but you have to bear in mind that, even when fresh (not having been resting in the bottle for weeks or months), homebrew yeast is nowhere near as vigorous as bread yeast.

So: use more (I would say twice as much, at a guess), let the starter get really active before you mix it with the dough/flour and leave longer rising periods, especially the last. I tried to let the last rising happen in the tin and didn't push the dough down again before baking.

As mentioned above, if you're using beer yeast, you may as well make the bread beer themed and perhaps use dme instead of sugar and/or some spent grain in the mix. I just used a bottle of malty beer instead of water, using its sediment for yeast, but that ended up with the hop taste in the bread, which detracted from it.

[takhsh]

I have not used the beer yeast to make bread, but I am making sour dough bread on a regular basis (I do not eat bread unless it is my own), as follows:
Each time I make bread I save a handfull bread-dough into a plastic bag that goes into my fridge. I use this one as yeast. I dissolve it into lukewarm water. Into this I add one cup of spend barley grains from my beer making hobby, 5 pounds of all purpose flour, and enough lukewarm water to make a very elastic dough. One has to work the dough to make it elastic. Then the dough is left into the food graded plastic bucket overnihgt. Next day in the morning the dough is doubled in volume. I punch it out, and place it into four pans. Ops, wrong. I take first the one handfull dough for the next time!
The dough stays into the forms all day, and at night after work, they get baked. The whole house smells so nice that even this experience is good enough for me to continue doing this!
Now where the hell get the first handfull of sour dough?
I bought once from a health food store a SanFransisco sour dough starter kit. I followed the instuctions, and this had me started. This was some 10 years ago! for 10 years now I am using the handfull of dough that I save from my previous bread making.
Good luck.
takhsh

[botay]

used beer yeast for pizza dough, took hours instead of the one hour the recipe said for bread yeast. it did rise and tasted good, just ad more time. used yeast off bottem of conicle.

[HogieWan]

thanks for the help. I bought some brewad yeast just to gt the feel for it before trying the beer yeast. I got the idea after pouring so much yeast from the bottom of each bottle down the drain. I figured I could have one last use for them.

Anyway - I got a 3 pk of yeast for < $1 and I've made 2 pizzas and one loaf. The sandwiches I bring for lunch were a lot tastier this week with the homemade bread.

[gallowd7]

Hogie, if you've got a big box store near you go ahead and buy a 1lb package of yeast for about $2.50 and put it in a 16oz soup container from a Chinese take-out. It will last for years in the freezer.