Yeast Is Yeast Or Is It?

[rfisher]

Hi All,

This is probably going to be the dumbest question on the forum this weekend and I am sure it has been answered before, but here goes. Is the yeast that goes into CO2 Reactor systems, like the hagen one, a particular type. I can find bakers yeast, brewers yeast, Liquid yeast and so I was wondering if any of these would be O.K to use.

Thanks,

Rich

 

[Majjie]

Well, technically the answer is yes and no

Yeast isn't yeast at all - in that there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of different yeast species. The one that is commonly called yeast - for bread making, brewing etc. is all the one species Saccharomyces cerevisiae - but then there are hundreds of different strains of this one species. The main division is between baking and brewing yeasts because they've obviously been selected for their particular purpose. Brewers will jealously guard their own favourite strains of yeast.

I've heard it said (might even have been on here) that brewing yeast is the best one to use for CO2 production in fish tanks - because it is more alcohol tolerant and it is the alcohol produced which eventually stops the yeast growing - and then you have to renew it. If that is true, then wine yeast should be better than beer yeast (higher alcohol content).

To actually answer your question:

Yes you can use any of them. I've just started to use Allinsons (for "traditional hand baking") because it comes in a handy little tin and says it can also be used in home brewing and wine making. I'd steer clear of the ones designed for bread making machines.

HTH