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I am looking to make some beer bread by substituting beer for water in some of my favorite recipes. I have heard that beer has yeast though, so I was wondering if the yeast in beer would work to ferment & proof my bread.

I was wondering if there is enough for say, an overnight rise without adding any extra yeast, or should I still use the full amount of yeast in each recipe that I use without the beer?

Seth
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    I would think the amount of yeast would depend on the specific beer you chose... and you might be better served by a bottle-carbonated beer. Most commercial beers are force carbonated and may not have active cultures. Plus, I'm pretty sure that, despite being called "yeast" they're not the same kind of "yeast". http://www.livestrong.com/article/418496-what-is-the-difference-between-brewers-yeast-bakers-yeast/ – Catija Mar 13 '15 at 21:10
  • To clarify, are you looking to use **beer yeast**, one of the varieties sold at beer stores to be used in the brewing process or are you hoping to use whatever yeast may be left over in beer that you've purchased at the store. – Catija Mar 13 '15 at 22:48
  • I am looking to use beer out of the bottle as a leavening agent. I see that I should use actual Bakers yeast to get the rise in addition to the beer (because the beer yeast will not work) – Seth Mar 14 '15 at 15:29
  • If you get a beer with live cultures in it you could make a yeast starter from it and use that. Not sure how it would turn out but would worth an experiment. Note that different beer yeast produce markedly different flavors so the results may depend strongly on the beer the yeast is harvested from. – casey Mar 14 '15 at 20:07
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    Note that, a century ago, bread was made with yeast *removed* from beer during clarifying. – FuzzyChef Oct 13 '20 at 02:35

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Made bread today by replacing the yeast and half the water with hefeweizen beer I brewed recently. I used equal parts beer and water, along with a little sugar, to make a yeast starter, thereby multiplying the amount of yeast present. Works great and provides hints of the distinctive hefeweizen underflavors of clove and banana. My advice is to experiment! Use unfiltered, unpasteurized beer to make a starter, remembering yeast is very sensitive to rapid temperature changes. Gradually warm everything to room temperature before combining!

Robert Jones
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Depends on the beer.

In Germany we a beer called "Weißbier" or "Hefeweizen" which you can actually use for baking.

The recipe 100ml "Hefeweizen" 15g flour 10g sugar => mix it => after 20h you have the equivalent of 25g yeast

Hans
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I don't believe you would want to try to leaven bread with beer only, though you could certainly use it as a flavoring.

First, the amount of yeast still present in a brewed batch of beer is very low. Beers that have been bottle carbonated (or bottle conditioned) will have more than others but, particularly with high gravity beers (beers with a lot of alcohol), a lot of the yeast has died due to the alcohol content or been removed by the manufacturer to clarify the brew (yeasts make beer cloudy).

Plus, beer yeast and bread yeast are very different things:

From the info here:

Different strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae produce different proportions of carbon dioxide and alcohol. Baker's yeast is a blend of several strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chosen for their flavor and ability to make carbon dioxide, which causes bread to rise. Brewer's yeast is made of strains chosen for their alcohol-producing ability and tends to have a bitter flavor. Brewer's yeast is considered an inactive yeast while baker's yeast is an active yeast. In an active yeast the yeast cells are still alive, whereas they are killed in the process of making inactive yeasts, like brewer's yeast.

Brewer's yeast is used to brew homemade wines and beers, while baker's yeast makes bread rise. You can't brew alcohol with baker's yeast and you can't leaven bread with brewer's yeast.

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Catija
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    While the brewer's yeast that is sold as a supplement is inactive (it's basically waste from the brewing process), the yeast used to make beer is very much active (and can be used to make bread with some minor adjustments to technique) – SourDoh Mar 13 '15 at 21:40
  • Indeed - and there are varieties of both bread (notably sourdough) and beer that make use of wild yeast strains to produce a specific sour, wild flavor. That suggests at least some interchangeability, though you're almost certainly right that they're not perfectly equal. Heck, even differences in yeast strain among yeasts intended for a single purpose can have a major impact on the flavor of finished bread and/or beer. – logophobe Mar 13 '15 at 22:40
  • @sourd'oh We actually brew beer and I'm well aware of that but the way I interpreted the question is that the OP asked about using **beer**, not about using **beer yeast**... so I didn't go into that much. Perhaps the OP should clarify. – Catija Mar 13 '15 at 22:46
  • @logophobe In fact, there are hundreds of varieties of yeast used in brewing alone. – Catija Mar 13 '15 at 22:49
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    Some bottle conditioned beer has plenty of live yeast left in it. If you really want to use it though you'd want to make a yeast starter from it rather than use it straight our of the bottle. – casey Mar 14 '15 at 20:03
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    @Catija Text you quoted in your answer is about yeast, that's what I was commenting on. Also, differentiating between brewer's yeast and baker's yeast is a fairly recent development. They had been used interchangeably for a very long time. – SourDoh Mar 14 '15 at 23:56
  • @sourd'oh Ah, I see... just a note, baker's yeast, in the US anyway, is a highly specialized, fast rising yeast... I'd guess that, even if one were to use beer yeast, it would take considerably longer to rise... In a 5 gallon jug with tons of sugar, the beer yeast can take a day or two to start bubbling. – Catija Mar 15 '15 at 00:02
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    @Catija It actually doesn't take significantly longer than bakers yeast to make bread. I'm guessing the speed is accounted for by yeast being used at a higher concentration in bread anyway, combined with the structure of the bread actually capturing the bubbles. – SourDoh Mar 15 '15 at 00:05
  • @sourd'oh If you think there is something I could change to improve my answer, I'm happy to discuss in chat. As is, I feel it does answer the OP's question. – Catija Mar 15 '15 at 00:08
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    @Catija The only issue I have is that the text you quote is incorrect, which I pointed out in comments. – SourDoh Mar 16 '15 at 14:53
  • Your first point is true, but your second point about the non-interchangeable nature of brewers and bread yeast, is not really correct - they aren't usually used cross-purpose nowadays, but they can be. There are some alcohols brewed with bread yeast (Joe's Ancient Orange Mead is a good example, go forth and *make* some). There are breads and doughs made with beer yeast (historically using barm, which is the foam and yeast skimmed from the top of fermenting beer). Modern reconstructions of barm-leavened recipes use yeast dunked in beer to activate, to get the same sorts of flavors in dough. – Megha Sep 24 '16 at 22:02
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I've harvested some yeast from bottle conditioned beer and started it off with a small amount of cooled boiled water and sucrose. Not much seemed to happen at first but after a couple of days it's apparent that the yeast is live. Next step is to grow the amount of yeast to a sensible amount for baking. Another teaspoon of sucrose and whirl it around resulted in massive improvement in the froth on top of the culture. Should be ready to bake in a couple of days and I'll be keeping some culture back to use on another bake if the taste is good.

timpin
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  • This looks like a comment, not an answer to the OP's question. You might want to wait until you finish finding out whether it's possible. :-) – Sneftel Apr 04 '20 at 15:25
  • Unfortunately, due to insufficient reputation, it seems I can't leave a comment or I would have deleted this answer and reposted as a comment. – timpin Apr 05 '20 at 07:35
  • I think I will keep the post since the timpin seems to be convinced that his method will work - it is not the first time that somebody posts a method they have not tested personally. And if it really works, it gives valuale information how to achieve it. – rumtscho Apr 07 '20 at 10:28
  • @timpin — please make sure you come back and edit your answer letting us know how it worked out. – myklbykl Apr 08 '20 at 19:42
  • Due to a lack of flour I haven't been able to do this. I now have about 200ml of yeast starter in my fridge. Hoping the fermentation has slowed enough to not kill the yeast due to alcohol intolerance – timpin Apr 11 '20 at 14:45
  • I am trying this same experiment, myself, with some 33year old homebrew. So far, after two days, I have been getting some froth. I plan to keep feeding the starter and see if activity increases. How did it go with timpin? – tomc May 07 '20 at 21:39
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As Catija has mentioned, the yeast in beer is dead and typically filtered out.

There does exist a class of recipes that are 'beer breads', in which you add beer or similar bubbly beverage ... but they're quick breads, not yeast breads.

Unlike using sparkling water in tempura, or beer cider in a beer batter, where you rely on the trapped bubbles to give the lift when it's fried, most beer breads also add some baking powder or baking soda to assist on the lifting.

I am not aware of any baked loaf breads that rely on lift solely from beer. You might have some flatbreads flavored with beer, that don't have other lifting agents, but that's not your typical loaf bread.

Joe
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    Not all beers have dead yeast that is filtered out. There are many beers brewed around the world that are bottle conditioned. It is not uncommon for a home brewer (I have experience) to use the yeast from a purchased beer to inoculate a new batch of brew. It is true that the live yeast cells are greatly reduced. However, one can extract the sediment in the bottle, and add it to a small portion of wort. Over time you can multiply the yeast to the point that it is usable. I don't think I would bake with it though. – moscafj Mar 14 '15 at 19:59
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    You can also make beer breads that aren't quickbreads (replacing water in a yeast bread recipe with beer). I would sort of agree with moscafj though, with a caveat. While the yeast in bottle conditioned beer isn't technically dead, for the purposes of making bread it might as well be. You'd have to do a good bit of work strengthening the culture to bake with it. – SourDoh Mar 14 '15 at 23:54
  • @moscafj : there's a good chance that the yeast profile recovered from a beer won't be exactly like the yeast that was used to make the beer -- because each yeast strain dies at a slightly different level of alcohol, what's most likely to survive are those that can tolerate the higher percentages of alcohol. (which might be good if you're trying to brew a stronger beer ... might it might not give the same flavors as the original mix). – Joe Mar 15 '15 at 01:21
  • @Joe fair point about varying profile, but I don't buy 'stronger beer'...not even sure what that means. However, my main point was that not all beers are filtered, and in many of those cases the yeast is, indeed, alive. – moscafj Mar 15 '15 at 11:46
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    By stronger Joe means "higher ABV" – Preston Mar 15 '15 at 20:40