The Fresh Loaf

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Alternative Yeast Strains

albacore's picture
albacore

Alternative Yeast Strains

I chanced upon an interesting scientific article exploring the use of alternative strains to normal baking yeast. Some of the strains were reckoned to give better flavoured bread in the trial, but finding a readily available source of Torulaspora delbrueckii and Saccharomyces bayanus round here may prove problematic!

 

Lance

jbovenbread's picture
jbovenbread

I would love to get my hands on some of these as well.

You may be interested in http://www.lallemand.com/ The company produces a variety of commercial bread yeasts with a range of interesting characteristics.  Unfortunately they only supply their products to distributors or 'large' producers.

You can get a 5 g packet of a French Style Sourdough Starter from King Arthur Flour (item # 207722 @ $9.95).  I've tried this product and really like it, but unfortunately it seems to fade away fairly quickly against the natural strains of yeast in my sourdough starter.

As a matter of interest where is the 'around here' in your post?

albacore's picture
albacore

I'm in the UK. Apparently White Labs now supply Torulaspora delbrueckii, code WL603, so it might be possible to get it in the US.

I expect you would need to grow it up in reasonably sterile conditions from a small culture - not that difficult.

There is one UK supplier, but it's out of stock with them. Plus there is a cost issue, as it will probably cost over 10GBP with postage.

Lance

 

 

jbovenbread's picture
jbovenbread

Thanks for the information.  You should be able to get one of your local distributors to get a hold of something you want, although it may be a special order.

https://www.whitelabs.com/stores/international?country=gb

albacore's picture
albacore

Thanks - a useful list. I changed tack slightly and had a look for Saccharomyces Bayanus.

It seems that there is homewinemaking yeast, Vintners Harvest ( now Mangrove Jacks ) - SN9 that comprises S. Bayanus, whether pure strain or mixed, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I picked up a sachet on Ebay for £2.99 as I thought it was worth a go! It doesn't need culturing up either.

There's 8g in the packet, so I'll use half initially for a trial, maybe in a Poolish to grow it up a bit.

I will report back!

Lance

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

This is quite interesting. According to Wikipedia, Torulaspora delbrueckii is a yeast commonly used in wine fermentation and is found native on grapes. Maybe it would be possible to create some yeast water using organic grapes, although it may not yield a pure strain. Alternatively, it may be available at home brewing/wine making supply shops. Worth a try, anyway.

-Brad

Abe's picture
Abe (not verified)

Some methods for making a sourdough starter involves adding grape skins to the mix. Perhaps the yeasts dominating their starters could very well be Torulaspora delbrueckii. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

at any brew shop as well.  Mine has 40 different ones when I checked yesterday.

albacore's picture
albacore

Well, I had a go with the Mangrove Jack's SN9 and had some rather nice results. I used the yeast to make Hamelman's Pain Rustique - white bread with poolish at 65% hydration; 1g of the dried yeast in the poolish with 300g BF and 1g in the main mix with another 300g BF.

The bread had a great aroma and a lovely crumb structure. Loft wasn't fantastic, but this is a very unstructured bake, with minimal shaping and proved on a couche.

Better than "normal" yeast or SD? - not sure, but certainly worth a punt.

Lance