Pricing games

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

We have seen many variations in prices recently with many shortages and panic buying.

 

one of the commodities in short supply is yeast, not beer or wine yeast but bread yeast. My friend, Jen, received an email offering 2 lbs of yeast for $25, the claims sounded dubious, I thought they were trying to take advantage of panicked buyers.  I looked on Amazon and found two lbs for 4.99, perhaps too good to be true, but five bucks!  I ordered it. I had said I’d share it so I weighed it out, whoa, something’s wrong. It was to be two packages of 16 oz of yeast. It was two 16 oz packages, but the package weighed .5 oz, contents was 15.5 oz, a 3% shortage, not a good sign. I went on line to check out the reviews, knowing that I am more nerdy than the average bear.  Many of the reviews said that it was repackaged expired yeast.

 

the recommendation for using it was to just add to the mix and add warm water, but I opted to proof it first. I never saw a better proof, but I will continue to “trust but verify”.
 

on the other side of the coin, i paid $4.99. In two weeks it was 9.99, now it is 14.99.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

Two pounds of yeast would supply an aircraft carrier for at least 3 months!

JHC

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

8 minutes ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

Two pounds of yeast would supply an aircraft carrier for at least 3 months!

JHC

1/8 oz per loaf of bread, 8x32 = 256 loaves. Unless the Navy breeds it’s yeast.

 

i used to breed my beer yeast.

[Ramblin Gambler]

I was fixin to ask about that.  I thought once you had some you could always make more. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

4 minutes ago, Ramblin Gambler said:

I was fixin to ask about that.  I thought once you had some you could always make more. 

In the course of baking a loaf of bread the yeast does not multiply, just sits there consuming carbs and pooping CO2 and alcohol. When you brew beer, the yeast has time to do all that and multiply.

 

for brewing beer, when you start the next batch you can use some of the yeast from the previous batch instead of new yeast.

 

a couple of problems exist. Suppose you use all of the spent yeast the fermentation will be rapid. Maybe you won’t like the taste? As yeast reproduces it mutates, you might not get a consistent result. The beer companies employ battalions of microbiologists to ensure their yeast is consistent, batch to batch, as do the major bread companies.

 

but any port in a storm, if I had to make bread with beer yeast, I’d give it a try.

[Cat Brules]

21 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

1/8 oz per loaf of bread, 8x32 = 256 loaves. Unless the Navy breeds it’s yeast.

 

i used to breed my beer yeast.

Yeah?  What did you cross it with?

 

Cat Brules

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

5 minutes ago, Cat Brules said:

Yeah?  What did you cross it with?

 

Cat Brules

 

Yeast does not need two entities to reproduce, thus it is not “crossed” with anything.

 

Quote

Yeast has a phenomenal growth rate and can duplicate itself every 90 minutes by a process called budding. During budding, a mature yeast cell puts out one or more buds, each bud growing bigger and bigger until it finally leaves the mother cell to start a new life on its own as a separate cell.

 

[Cat Brules]

Thanx!  Just wanted to make sure it wuzn’t the neighbor’s cat!

 

Cat Brules

[Cactus Jack Calder]

What is the agent in Sour Dough? I thought that it would have been yeast. I’ve never made it so all I have as a reference is written accounts. 
 

CJ

 

[Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381]

Tough to find certain brands. We had plenty of yeast on hand, including sourdough starter. Here is a loaf of French Country Sourdough Bread that came out yesterday.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 hour ago, Cactus Jack Calder said:

What is the agent in Sour Dough? I thought that it would have been yeast. I’ve never made it so all I have as a reference is written accounts. 
 

CJ

 

There are yeasts in the air, thus some well known Belgian beers.

 

sourdough picks up some of these yeasts but the primary leavening is provided by fermentation. The combination of the two processes, fermentation and yeast farts make for the unique flavors of various sourdoughs.