It’s been 21 days since we pitched yeasts for the Great Yeast Experiment. The results are in and, honestly quite shocking!
The spreadsheet of course was my own, made just for this occasion, but the screenshot is just from an internet search (Screenshot Credit).
Now, I pitched the yeast for these on the morning of 12 Feb 2022, and it was afternoon on 04 Mar 2022 when I took these measurements, so I’m saying it’s been 21 days.
I looked back at the post from when I pitched the yeasts and put the bottles out in the same order as they had been in before.
Then I just went down the line and took gravity measurements and tastings of each.
I want to avoid a long winded breakdown of each fermentation here, and I’ll be up front in my reasoning. The truth is, I’m writing this after the rest of this post has sat in drafts for just under two weeks. I think I’ve been dreading trying to assemble unique and accurate descriptions for all 7 fermentations, but today it occurred to me that these advanced descriptions really aren’t necessary, and in particular, several yeasts can be lumped together based on their outcomes.
Turbo yeast:
So bad I dumped it out. Now I guess we’ll never know, but as far as I’m concerned, we already do. Turbo yeast is made for distillers, it can quickly churn up a high alcohol mix from plain sugar water. It creates off-flavors (I think due to added yeast nutrients) and seems to struggle with fermenting things of nuance (I.e. juice instead of sugar water).
Wine Yeast:
Slightly sweeter and lower in ABV than the remaining fermentations. Probably because wine yeast moves more slowly. My guess is there will be some value in re-evaluating in another couple weeks…chances are the wine yeast will be at a similar ABV and sweetness at that time.
Bread and Ale yeasts:
Almost indistinguishable. The relationship between cost and output quality is absolutely non-linear, and for me, this was exactly what I wanted to see. Does it mean I altered or otherwise imparted my will into the test? Meh. Possible but not likely. I don’t like being lied to or tricked, and as a rule, I avoid doi g these things to myself. If the bread yeast sucked I would have been just as happy to know the truth and move on, but as it is, it looks like I’ll be brewing with cheap grocery store bread yeast from now on. I may try to keep a strain alive through multiple brews to create my own heirloom yeast…then again, I may not. I’m a busy man.
Almost all the bottles retained some level of lemon flavor, strawberry, or both, but in this regard the wine yeast was best. This can be noted also in the coloration. See how the wine yeast was the only one to retain the pinkish hue?
Let’s check back in a couple weeks and see if that’s still the case. If not, this might be a good argument in favor of artificially stopping fermentation with potassium sorbate or some equivalent inhibitor at peak color/flavor.
The flavors on the bread and ale yeasts were by no means bland, so while wine yeast seems to have the best balance of ABV and flavor/color, for a faster brewing, harder hitting batch, bread yeast will still be a solid go-to.
Anyway, for now that’s about it. I’ll try to do this again at around the 4 week/1month mark to make sure our data is as comprehensive as can be.
Thanks for checking out some more of my work! As always, I hope you enjoyed witnessing as much as I enjoyed creating!
© Photos and words by @albuslucimus unless otherwise credited.
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