# Help with yeast



## Gaki (Mar 5, 2006)

*Is there a difference in yeast? I'm trying to make a media from http://www.doylesdartden.com/fruitfly.html. *

Banana and Apple Sauce Mix 
by Anthony Hundt 

1 cup banana (about 2 bananas) 
1 cup apple sauce 
1/8 cup vinegar (or 2 tablespoons or 15 ml) 
2 cups oatmeal 
a few granules of baker's yeast 

Put banana and apple sauce in blender or bowl and mix until the banana is liquified. Heat in the microwave for approximately 2 min. or until hot enough to kill off any wild fruit fly eggs that were in the bananas, and to reduce mold. Add the vinegar and mix in oatmeal until it becomes firm, but still moist. Put the mixture in wide mouth quart canning jars and allow to cool. Once cooled, add the yeast and flies. 


*The only type of yeast I found is active yeast. Is there a difference between baker's yeast and active yeast?*


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Yes there is a difference. Both are the same species of yeast, but active yeast is still living. If you were to use baker's yeast in place of the brewer's yeast you'd have a culture that woudln't produce because of CO2 buildup. 

You can find brewer's yeast at health food stores or online. It's a long shot, but maybe Ed Parker still has some for sale. Shoot him a pm.


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## Gaki (Mar 5, 2006)

*GNC?*

Is this it? 
http://tinyurl.com/mkteh

<URL shrinkage, Catfur>


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Yep, same stuff. 

Clayton, how come you use Tiny URL and not just rename the URL tag to show an alternate text? I've always been curious.


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

I think defaced is confusing bakers yeast and brewers yeast. Baker's yeast is active yeast (for making bread). Brewers yeast is the sludge they dredge off of the bottom of the beer fermentation vats, which is kinda nasty, but full of all kinds of protien and vitamins. Don't buy GNC brewers yeast as pills, those are for humans (and expensivo!), you can find brewers (or nutritional, which is similar) yeast for sale in bulk in health food stores, at the grocer (look in the organic foods) or online.


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

Defaced, to tell the truth, I use tinyURL because I can't seem to make the URL tags work right. Which is funny, because I don't have any trouble using all the other tags right, including the unlisted ones.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Baker's yeast: still living
Brewer's yeast: not living

Baker's yeast is found at grocery stores. 
Brewer's yeast is found at health food stores (I didn't look to see if what he listed were pills or not. Get the powdered form, not pills or caplets, GNC does have it, but some will argue about the quality)


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

Gaki said:


> *The only type of yeast I found is active yeast. Is there a difference between baker's yeast and active yeast?*


No, they are the same thing, you use a few granules per culture.

Brewers yeast is dead, and provides vitamins and protein. There is a big difference b/t brewers yeast and bakers yeast, but no difference b/t bakers and active yeast. It is the stuff available at every grocery store.

Defaced: you have them straight, but the way you answered the question in your first post on this thread made it seem otherwise. His recipe doesn't even call for brewers yeast.

Here is brewers yeast if you find a recipe that uses it http://tinyurl.com/fgdn3

Here is bakers yeast, which your recipe calls for http://tinyurl.com/jorze, I buy it in the grocery store, but that is a picture for you.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I guess I should read the question completely before answering. 

Baker's Yeast is active yeast.


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

defaced said:


> Since there seem to be some confusion:
> 
> 
> 
> > *Yes there is a difference. Both are the same species of yeast, but active yeast is still living.* If you were to use baker's yeast in place of the brewer's yeast you'd have a culture that woudln't produce because of CO2 buildup.


There is a difference between *brewers* yeast, and bakers yeast (active yeast), but his question was is there a difference between active yeast and bakers yeast. Refer to the first post in this thread.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Read my updated post above. I re-read the question and caught my mistake. My apoligies.


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## Guest (May 27, 2006)

Not to add more confusion to this topic (I'm by no means a yeast expert), but I always thought that both brewers and bakers yeast needs to be active (or alive ) to do it's intended job. If someone were to use dead yeast I can see no other purpose for it other than a food source for the flies. As I said earlier, I'm no pro...just thinking out loud. I googled out this information that might explain things better.......

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=515013


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

You can buy active brewer's yeast as this is used for fermentation of fluids into alcohol however as a nutritional supplement brewer's yeast is dead. The addition of nutritional brewer's yeast doesn't cause any fermentation or CO2 off gassing and simply increases the nutritional content of the media (for example it increases the protein content of the medimedia which can increase the productivity of the media (as protien is a limiting nutrient on ff culture)). 
The addition of baker's yeast at the start of the culture increases the amount of yeast in the culture (as there is also transfer of yeast on the feet of the flies) and helps to prevent the invasion of other fungus and bacteria. This also stimulates the flies to begin laying eggs sooner. 

Ed


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## Vicky Rut (Apr 28, 2006)

This is a very intresting answear Ed and quite helpful 

I used bakersyeast acording to my recipie and all but one of the flies I put 
in there died  probably becouse of CO2 buildup....
I made more holes put some more flies and suddenly there are larva all over
the place 
so I am guessing that good ventelation is necicarry when using bakers yeast ?


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## Guest (May 27, 2006)

Ed,
Thank you for this clarification on the brewers yeast part of the media recipe. I have been using active 1 tsp. brewers yeast, 1 bananna, 1/4 cup water, 3 tbs. vinegar, 1 tbs. icing sugar and 1 cup oatmeal...to make 2 cultures. I would then add a few sprinkles of active bakers yeast over the top.
This did not make much sense to me...1 tsp. (active)brewers [see below pic] and then add a few sprinkles of bakers on top. 

As I understand, I would need to use a non active brewers yeast for my ff media correct? That does make sense!! I know this may sound crazy but how could I kill my active brewers yeast? Would it not end up being the right mixture?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Hi Vicky,

Yes you need to have adequate ventilation for the cultures or they will suffocate the flies. I use coffee filters on the tops of my mason jars to ensure adequate ventilation. 

Hi Kaybee,

Don't kill your active brewer's yeast (you can use it in place of baker's yeast), most people don't use it as it costs more than the baker's yeast. What you want to do is order a supply of brewer's yeast that is used as a nutritional supplement. 

Ed


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

BulkFoods


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## Guest (May 29, 2006)

Well finally, this ff culturing makes sense! (where is the emoticon banging head on desk?)....I have been able to produce maggots,fly's but they never lasted more than 2 weeks, and always low yeild.

I went to the bulk food store today and purchased a "fist sized" bag of brewers yeast for under 2 dollars.

All this time I have been using 1tbs. of active brewers yeast in with the sugar, oatmeal etc. (a mix for only 2 cultures)...and then a few sprinkles of bakers (active)yeast on top. So I'm thinking to myself "this makes no sense to sprinkle a few pellets of bakers yeast on top of the tablespoon of brewers (active) that has already been mixed in.

Of all the post's and online research I have done that required "brewers yeast" in the media mix, it was never specified (or I never noticed) that it was the "dead" powder form of brewers yeast used for human consumption as a vitamin B suppliment. I just assumed that if the recipe suggested brewers yeast I would find it at a DIY brewers supply outlet which would happen to be active and totally the wrong type of yeast!

I wonder how many others have made this same mistake??

I'm going to make some fly's....thank you guys!...


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

Kyle, 

About how much yeast comes in that five pound container (volume)? I'm looking for about looking for about 6 cups, which is enough for two of my every-six-weeks batches of dry media.

-Solly


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

Solly, I store the 5# bag of brewer's (Red Star nutritional, actually), in a 2.4 gallon rubbermaid, and it about fills the container to the brim. Powdered brewer's yeast may be a bit more compact, as the Red Star Nutritional yeast is in flake form. The 5# bag lasts me a little less than a year, at 12 cultures a week.


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

I do 15 a week, so maybe I'll just get it. I recall hearing that yeast goes bad after a while?

Also, why do you choose nutritional over brewers?

-Solly


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## Guest (May 30, 2006)

> I recall hearing that yeast goes bad after a while?
> 
> Also, why do you choose nutritional over brewers?


I understand the difference now and tried to explain it as best I could in my above post. I may not have explained it very well...some one else want to help sort this out?


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

Solly,
I believe Ed said it best:
brewers yeast (from a brewer supply) is active.
brewers yeast (from a health store as a suppliment) is inactive.

Inactive brewers is what you want to mix in with your media. This acts as a food for the larvae.

Top that off with a few grains of bakers yeast (active) or active brewers yeast. This acts as a food for the parent flies as they eat yeast produced by friut, thus "Fruit Flies".


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## Guest (May 30, 2006)

Yes...bingo!...well explained....
And as I said earlier...I wonder if any one else has made the same mistake of using all active yeast and ending up with low or no ff's??


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

I understand the difference between active baker's and dead brewers. My question was between dead brewer's and dead nutritional.

-Solly


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## Guest (May 30, 2006)

> dead brewer's and dead nutritional.



There is no difference between the two...they are synonyms.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

The 5lb bag is a good amount thats what I normally order and it lasts me a few months. Though lately that may be a bit less. ;-)


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

If I am not mistaken, are they not one and the same?


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

kaybee said:


> > dead brewer's and dead nutritional.
> 
> 
> 
> There is no difference between the two...they are synonyms.


Uh, then how come bulkfoods.com sells both, as different items?

-Solly


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

Brewer's yeast (the dead stuff) is the sludge from the bottom of a beer fermentation vat, after some processing. It tastes like one would expect something squeegeed out of a beer vat to taste like.

Nutritional yeast is produced specifically for human consumption in sugar water or molasses. It tastes less like death itself, but has similar nutritional properties.

I use nutritional because someone, somewhere said they got better results with it than with brewer's. Can't say for sure that it does give better results, though.


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