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Dave West[_2_] Dave West[_2_] is offline
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Default Maximum sugar without choking fermentation?


"Ecnerwal" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Dave West" > wrote:
>> Actually in the question i was wondering more what would be the maximum
>> sugar level bakers yeast could tolerate, when adding all the sugar *at
>> one
>> go*. (rather than adding it in stages). Any idea on that one please ?

>
> Right, now you sound suspiciously trollish. You're making 5% but your
> wondering how high it can go...Feel free to experiment. 10% is no big
> deal. Not an experiment I care to run - results may vary with the brand,
> and also the lot, of baking yeast, since it's not selected for alcohol
> tolerance particularly, so it will probably vary from lot to lot. 12% or
> so is generally a safe bet for the low end for almost any yeast, with
> adequate time. Take a bunch of clean half-litre or litre bottles, load
> them up with varying amounts of sugar, inoculate with yeast, cover the
> tops, come back and measure in a few months. The highest ones will take
> a long time to finish.
>
>> Also since i would only want to go up to say 5% by volume of alcohol at
>> the
>> most, is there any advantage in paying more for a wine yeast as opposed
>> to a
>> bakers yeast ? Would there for instance be any difference in the taste of
>> the final product?

>
> Yes, otherwise there would not be 50 or more easy to find and hundreds
> slightly less easy to find varieties of beer (ale & lager) and wine
> yeasts. Bread yeast is more or less like a mongrel dog - all it's
> selected for is the ability to eat sugar and generate carbon dioxide.
> Ale, Lager and Wine yeasts are all selected for flavor produced -
> alcohol tolerance, when it is even a factor, is secondary. They also eat
> sugar and produce carbon dioxide, but that's not what they are selected
> for. The oddballs that have been selected first for high alcohol
> tolerance (25%+) for the home-distilling and fuel-ethanol crowd are
> generally reported to produce a vile-tasting product (which doesn't
> matter so much if all that is being done is to get the alcohol out of it
> with a still.)
>
> For 3-7% work at room or warmish cellar temperatures, I tend to choose
> ale yeast. It often doesn't cost any more than bread yeast, and the
> ingredients cost far more than the yeast. If you are feeling
> particularly parsimonious, you can re-use the same yeast for several
> batches, if you are careful about sanitation. If you have a cold cellar,
> lager is good.
>
> If you're really, really cheap, you can just toss in some unwashed
> grapes (with stems and all is better) or apples and play natural yeast
> lottery with them. People sometimes get great results, other times not
> so great - that's why there is a fermentation yeast industry for more
> predictable results...
> --
> Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
> Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go
> away.

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"Ecnerwal" thanks for your detailed response. you might be thinking about
trolls too much and no longer appreciate there is a lot for a beginner to
get their mind around all the variables. Thanks for your help.