[Sca-cooks] Period Pretzels, yet again...

[Terry Decker]

> Bear, this may be a dumb question, but have you baked directly from the 
> ale barm? How was it different from, say, the powdered yeast you can buy 
> at the grocery? I know when I was brewing small mead, I would skim off the 
> foam and wonder if I could scoop it off and use it for bread. Never tried 
> because even then I was having serious hand/wrist issues. Haven't made 
> bread in about 15 years. I might give it a try if it was part of an 
> experiment...
>
> Liutgard
> -- 

My limited experience with ale barm was that it wasn't as potent as modern 
dry active yeast, which has been carefully bred for the past 100 years to 
reduce alcohol production and increase the CO2.  As I remember it, the bread 
took about 6 hours to rise.  This was before I took copious notes on these 
kinds of experiments, so I have only memories to rely on.  I should be in 
New Mexico full time by year's end and I'm thinking about getting a stone 
crock and running up an ale pot just to test the leavening.

Terry