"Dave West" > wrote

> Many thanks. Would you be able to explain to a complete novice why the
> dried baking yeast is not advisable? I've made a couple of batches
> now using 125gm sugar per litre, one lot using baking yeast and one
> using a wine yeast.
>
> For the life of me, i cannot tell the difference between the end
> results of the two; either in terms of taste, length of fermentation
> or anything else.
>
> The baking yeast is a fraction of the cost, so in terms of making this
> simple low alcohol brew (6.0 ABV approx) brew; would you still suggest
> I really need to spend the extra on the wine yeast? Thanks.

Home brewing forums are filled with comments that it's horrible,
terrible, no good, very bad idea, but more research says it's just not
the best idea.

Baking yeast has been used to make good quality beer. Here's a video on
basicbrewing.com about using bread yeast to make beer (and beer yeast to
make bread).

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.ph...007---trading-
places-beer-and-bread-yeast

They said the beer was good stuff.

There are reasons not to use baking yeast though. The temperature ranges
for brewing aren't clear, so there's sort of a roll of the dice as to
making weird tasting stuff. It's also unclear whether the sanitation is
as good for bread yeast as brewing yeast, so there's the possibility of a
higher risk of spoiled brew. It also sounds like baking yeast tends not
to settle as well as brewing yeast, and suspended yeast can give a bunch
of unpleasant flavors.

It's possible to reuse yeast several times, so it may be cost-efficient
to buy a cheap packet of brewing yeast and then re-fermenting with the
sediment left after a batch ferments. Google the words --> repitch yeast
slurry <-- and you can get more information on good practices.