[Sca-cooks] Leven: yeast or sourdough?

[Holly Stockley]

It isn't really the residues (lees) that you want.  Been there - tried that.  The resulting loaf tastes TERRIBLE.  Blech.   You want to get the actively fermenting foam on the top (presuming you're using Ale yeast...  which you should be).  But along with the yeast, you get a fair amount of liquid proto-beer.
CAN you leaven bread with wine?  Yep.  But wine strains tend to be a little different than ale strains.  They're not quite so aggressive, produce a bit less CO2 and tend to be more alcohol tolerant (as a group - there are some ales yeasts that are VERY tolerant).  Wine is normally of a higher alcohol concentration than ale, so this makes sense.
IF you use wine - you are essentially dumping a bunch of grape must into your bread with the yeast.  And you get - grape flavored bread.
Basically, it's easier to use ale yeast from beer and the result is better.  Ale yeasts take to flour fairly well, and attenuate into nice baking yeasts within about a dozen uses.  A lot of it is just greater compatibility for the substrate.
Femke
> 
> Does wine making (from grapes, although I guess other fruits and honey as well) produce residue which includes yeast?
> 
> If so, can't that yeast be used to produce yeast for bread and such? Or is that a different yeast unsuitable for use as a bread leaven?
> 
> Stefan
> 
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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