Is there a difference between brewers and active dry yeast?!
Is there a difference between brewers and active dry yeast?
Answers:
Sort of.
It depends on the context. If you're referring to brewer's yeast in terms of the nutritional supplement, then the only difference between it and active dry yeast is that it's dead. Active yeast is still alive. Either way, they're both saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Then, there's the difference between brewING yeast and baking yeast...but, again, only slightly. Again, they're both saccharomyces cerevisiae, but brewing yeast has been cultivated specifically for strains that do well in a brewing capacity (beer, wine, cider, mead, etc.) and baking yeast is cultivated for its ability to produce lots of CO2 to make bread rise.
You *can* make beer or wine with baking yeast, but the yeast doesn't have the quality of settling to the bottom when it's done fermenting the brew...it also has a decent alcohol tolerance (upwards to 14%) but since it tends to leave a cloudy, yeasty brew, this isn't desirable. Brewing yeast has been cultivated such that it creates subtle flavor variances depending on the strain, and so that it clumps together and settles out of your brew when it's done doing its thing (flocculation) so that your finished beverage is clear, clean tasting, and not 'yeasty'. Similarly, you *can* bake with it, but you might never get it to rise sufficiently (if at all) in the time it requires to make your dough, or it might taste off...not to mention it's so much more expensive than baking yeast, why bother?
Brewers yeast is a health food. It's the kind of yeast that comes from making beer. It's sold in dry form and used for it's health benefits. I think it's high in the B vitamins. You usually find it in the health food area of the grocery store.
Active dry yeast is the kind of yeast which is used in making bread and other baking. It's sold in the grocery stores in the baking aisle near the flour.
Brewers yeast is nasty tasting, but good for you. Some type of health benefit. (At least that is what I was told as a child when I was made to take it)
Dry yeast is for bread making
active dry yeast is what you buy at the grocery store for baking (baking yeast) and brewing yeast has been carefully selected for brewing beer/wine. it is intended to do its job and settle to the bottom of the wine/beer to siphon off. it;s better to use this yeast for brewing.
however, in high school, i made iwne all the time with baking yeast and it would work too. youd have to siphon it alot to get it clear, and yeah it tasted a bit "yeasty" but not too noticeable. if you want to make a really good wine/beer, use real brewing yeast. if you jsut want to get wasted though, save the fifty cents and go buy some baking yeast and bottoms up!