SC - non-member submission - re - must

[Jenne Heise]

> I tend to agree with you on this one. Since yeasts used in bread making are 
> for the most part strains developed from ale yeasts I don't see flavor as the 
> issue. At least some, if not all, commercial bakeries during the middle ages 
> were attached to ale breweries.

I need more technical information before I will agree with this
classification. Bear says that the difference between an ale yeast and a
beer yeast is that ale yeast is top fermenting? Which confuses me, because
many people differentiate an ale from a beer based on othe qualities.
However, I have heard the term 'beer' used generically for all
grain-brewed beverages; specifically for hopped beverages; and widely for
all non-ale beverages. I know that lagers are specifically cold-brewed and
there is something different about lager yeast. But I also know that you
can get tired yeast out of the bottom of the first fermentation of cider
or stout (which is which, beer or ale?) or mead and feed it up and use it
in a bread sponge. So I'm hopelessly confused.

My trusty OED is no help: "ale: 1. An intoxicating liquor made from an
infusion of malt by fermentation. Various ingredients have at various
times been added to impart flavour; at present hops or other bitters are
in use.
  Ale and beer seem originally to have been synonymous. The Alvismál says
‘öl heitir me mönnum, en me Ásum bjórr,’ it is called ‘ale’ among men, and
among the gods ‘beer.’ After the introduction into England of ‘the wicked
weed called hops’ (Retn. to Edw. VI's Parlt.) c 1524, ‘beer’ was commonly
hopped; at present ‘beer’ is in the trade the generic name for all malt
liquors, ‘ale’ being specifically applied to the paler coloured kinds, the
malt for which has not been roasted or burnt; but the popular application
of the two words varies in different localities."

So could someone point me to a resource that gives more detail on this
topic? Specifically, the difference between ale and beer in period, and
getting yeast out of a fermentaion process to use for more fermentation or
leavening?
 -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"I do my job. I refuse to be responsible for other people's managerial 
hallucinations." -- Lady Jemina Starker