Red Star Platinum yeast

I've found zero information on this, and being very uneducated in the area I need some info.

I had bought a recipe for a nice dark stout and had finished making it, when I realized my "yeast" was actually hops. Stupid mistake, but having just finished boiling and about to pour the wort (?) into the primary fermentor.

So in a rush I went to the only place still open - the grocery store. I bought some "Red Star Platinum" yeast and the thing is bubbling like crazy.

I'm worried that its going to go way dryer than I want, and cannot, for the life of me, find what alcoholic % these yeasts go to. I'm assuming they around 14%. I've also found one forum talking about people distilling from the finished fermented product and it ends up tasting like "Tails" much quicker than other yeasts...

Not excited at the moment.

My current idea - take hydrometer reading, when its finished, put in sulphites (or sulphates?) to end the fermentation. I'm worried, however, there is going to be a nasty off-flavor.

Anyone use this before?
Any other suggestions?
Anyone use this (or other bread yeasts) with beer and let it finish?

Why you asking us? Talk to your Father.

IIRC, bread yeast has pretty low alcohol tolerance, in the neighborhood of 5-6%? You might be ok. Can't speak for the flavor, though. Please update with results.

I've looked up some of the others - like fleischmanns and Red Start baking yeast and they say they go up to, generally, 15%.

However, I believe I have used red star before, but can't remember, da**it, if it turned out ok.

And JAOM (Joes Ancient Orange Mead) uses bread yeast and stops at around 10-12%. My impression from reading a bit over the past couple days is under absolutely optimal conditions, bread yeasts can get around 15%, but with most cases die at 12, max.

I'm all for a heavy beer, but the recipe I called for gives out around 5% alcohol... 10% is going to be really pushing it for this one I think.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/deception-cream-stout-141483/
(Minus the lactose, just not a fan)

Being a pants and suspenders type I generally stir about 2-3 grams of reconstituted bakers yeast into the bottling bucket — just in case. I usually have some degree of carbonation within 2 days. I don't think using baking yeast has any noticeable effect on the flavor as it's only working on simple sugar, not the complex ones from malts and grains.

I'd say that worrying whether the bread yeast "will dry the beer too much" would be at the very bottom of the list of problems expected.

I'm assuming you're fermenting at reasonable temps (mid to high 60s F).
Right now the bread yeast is consuming (or has consumed) all the simple sugars in the wort but has left the actual malt sugars alone since it's not bred (see what I did there?) for that.

Go buy some actual ale yeast ASAP, pitch it and hope for the best.


This sentence here:

"I'm all for a heavy beer, but the recipe I called for gives out around 5% alcohol... 10% is going to be really pushing it for this one I think"

makes me think you're not really sure how (or how much) alcohol is supposed to be produced.

I highly recommend buying a good brewing book and learning how it works before you go diving in head first into this addictive hobby.

All the best.

Well... I don't know. I think I'm going to just give it a taste soon. It seems to already have finished.

So here's another question.. If all the simple sugars are gone, and I have, say 5% alcohol and only complex sugars left, would a 'beer yeast' rated at 5% alcohol break down the complex sugars, giving another 5% alcohol, or is it totally done for at this alcohol level?

The bubbler has been giving out a huge amount of volume of CO2, way faster than anything I've brewed before, but it only ran for 2.5 or 3 days. Can't be much higher than 5%, of course I'm no expert on yeast enzyme kinetics!

And I understand how alcohol is made, basically. I've read one book, am a plant biologist and a chemist, so I have that stuff down, the general stuff about yeast though - not as much, such as the questions above.

What was the Original Gravity?
You would need an OG of 1.091 to get 12% alcohol with 100% attenuation which is not gonna happen.
Sugar dictates the potential amount of alcohol that the yeast is physically able to produce. A beer that has a starting gravity of 1.050 will only produce 6.5% alcohol if it ferments all of the available sugars (which it won't) no matter if you use bread, beer or distillers yeast. It's kinda like saying distance you can drive (potential alcohol) is relative to the amount of gas (total sugars) you have I've your car (beer). You won't travel 1000 miles (10% ABV) on 500 miles worth of gas, you will get half (5%).
So just see how it goes and get a hydrometer or start using it if you already have one, its the only way to know what's going on for sure.

Thanks Danny.

As my last hydrometer broke I don't know, but I followed the recipe to a T (minus lactose) I'm going to assume my OG was around 1.055-1.060.

Probably closer to 1.055 since I left out the lactose...
So it is safe to assume I'm not going to get much greater than 5% alcohol

Thanks very much.

What is, generally, the lowest most yeasts go for final a gravity?

el_caro said:

Why you asking us? Talk to your Father.

Click to expand...

lol

IJesusChrist said:

What is, generally, the lowest most yeasts go for final a gravity?

Click to expand...

It's generally 72-75% of the starting gravity.
1.055OG= 55 gravity points so .055x.75(75%)=.04125 or .041
1.055-.041=1.014 final gravity to be expected.