"Dave West" > wrote in message
...
>
> "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.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "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.

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I will experiment, but if you know the basics you won't be falling off the
edge disaster-wise. A friends girlfriend went to a great deal of trouble
recently to make a brew, but didn't know about keeping the lids on all the
time; so the vinegar fly got in, its the simple things that trip the
beginner.

One last question which i guess might sound even more trollish.. Does it
make any real difference whether you add a lemon at the beginning or at the
end? I've tried a google on this but can't phrase the question in a way that
brings results that obviously relate. Adding at the end will bring a
fresher lemon taste i guess, but does adding at the beginning add in any way
to the actual fermantation process? Thanks.