yeast

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Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 12:40 am Post subject: yeast
so there's some sort of national yeast shortage. I looked in the cupboard - turns out we are good for gelatin if anyone needs some and yes, I know about the sourdough natural yeast thing. what I was wondering though, if you had just one packet of fast acting yeast could you activate it. feed it and grow it and make more of the same type of yeast? or would it end up full of wild yeasts anyway?

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 12:44 am Post subject:
Dunno. Ours was horribly out of date when I needed it this aftternoon and didn't seem prepared to do anything when encouraged with water and sugar. I'm going to need to go to the yeast shop early next week. If I can buy some I'm happy to post some of it to you.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 1:19 am Post subject:
that's kind of you - but I think I am going to go down the soda bread route, if needs be. thanks anyway also I have some all purpose yeast that I use for making elderflower champagne so if push came to shove. and you have a yeast shop?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 7:39 am Post subject:
we also have a yeast crisis, was thinking along the same lines how to increase your yeast stock at home

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 8:56 am Post subject:
I thought maybe if you activated it, the fed it along the same lines as sour dough, it might work? Though other wild yeasts might join in

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15985

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 9:08 am Post subject:
You would also need to dilute it every so often as otherwise the alcohol content would build up and kill it. I suspect the fast acting yeast won't continue to be as fast acting, as the tiny granules may also contain nutrients, or it might run out of energy or something, but if you can try it with a tiny amount, might be worth a go.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6612
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 10:55 am Post subject:
This looks like good instructions https://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-Paying-for-Yeast-Make-Your-Own/

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 12:23 pm Post subject:

if at first it seems dead , persist a while.

when you add fresh or freshdried yeast to a starter there are billions which become 2x billions >4x billions etc

if the starter you use has only a few viable yeast it goes few>2 few>4few and so on until eventually you get to the billions point and then it only takes a couple of generations for lots.

a bit like epidemiology

in those terms yeast has an R2 and a doubling rate of about 15 mins at the optimum temperature/media for that strain,20 to25C is a fair bet for bread yeasts, wine a bit cooler.(they will grow faster a bit warmer but so will a load of unpleasant things and if there are more of them than the yeast they will dominate.

ie from inoculation with a small number of viable yeast most of the time to build up a useable population the mix will have very few active cells and will seem "useless" until enough generations have happened
it is the last couple of generations that you want for raising breads.

once you get one going, it is easy to use 3/4 for baking and dilute/feed the rest for next time or keep a blob of dough in a cold place and use that as a new inoculant for the next starter.

a nice thing with yeast is that Gt is very temp dependant, full speed at 30C and a Gt of 15 mins, at 10C Gt might be as low as 2 hrs and at 1C days or some will have "hibernated" ,they form a rather neat coating that protects the live bits and suspend their activities until times are better suited to their needs.

i have found life in some very unpromising yeasts that were well out of date, in open sachets etc.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 4:29 pm Post subject:
Nah, gave ours ages and it really wasn't doing anything. Also none to be had in town.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 4:37 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

Nah, gave ours ages and it really wasn't doing anything. Also none to be had in town.

dead at a guess.

a damp bowl, dusted with flour. outside will collect a variety of wild ones in a few days.

culture and select from there in.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 5:11 pm Post subject:

dpack wrote:

that's a good point. might be worth persisting with elderly yeast.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 5:17 pm Post subject:

dpack wrote:

sean wrote:

Nah, gave ours ages and it really wasn't doing anything. Also none to be had in town.

dead at a guess.

a damp bowl, dusted with flour. outside will collect a variety of wild ones in a few days.

culture and select from there in.

I'm just doing these instead. Chucked some onion seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and a splosh of olive oil in last night. Boy Wonder said they were a bit like Gareth's*. It's a nice scalable recipe too. 50g of flour makes one medium plate sized bread.

*They aren't a patch on Gareth's, he's just being polite.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 5:30 pm Post subject:
yeh i often make flatbreads, my favourite recipe uses yogurt, but you can make nice without.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 6:01 pm Post subject:
She’s found a packet at the back of the cupboard

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 20 6:02 pm Post subject:
Gareth makes brilliant parathas

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