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Baking with "brewers yeast" in 20th century London

greyspoke's picture
greyspoke

Baking with "brewers yeast" in 20th century London

I wonder if someone here can help me with some more information about this.

My grandfather ran a bakery in Addiscombe, South London until the 1970s (approximately). (Consequently there is no tradition of baking bread in my family as bread just appeared, indeed when grandpa retired it took my parents a few months to get their heads round the idea that bread had to be purchased.) Bread was baked on the premises daily, he also made cakes. I remember in particular macaroons and madeleines. Having a baker as a granddad seemed ideal at the time, though I suppose looking back on it had he been a merchant banker that would have been OK as well.

I remember one story my mother told me about the business. Apparently grandpa used “brewers yeast” rather than the more common “distillers yeast”. The boy used to collect yeast from a brewery in Merton (or could have been Mitcham) by bike at regular intervals, with a bucket of yeast hanging on each handlebar. I recall also being told that these were kept for a while and fed potato peelings (grandpa also ran a catering business). Of course time may have degraded this story but that is what I remember.  Having taken more of an interest in baking bread myself recently, I remembered this story and wondered what exactly was going on.

Now I think that by “distillers yeast” mum may have meant commercial yeast supplied by The Distillers Company Limited. They were big in drinks at the time, but were a conglomerate and had a commercial yeast making arm.   My researches have revealed that in 1991 The Distillers Company (Yeast) Limited assigned the trade mark DCL for yeast.  DCL is now a brand of Lesaffre. However the trade marks register also records the address of that company as being in Morden, Surrey, which is interesting bearing in mind what I recall my mum saying.  And a bit confusing.

At that time many traditional brewers would have kept a culture of yeast themselves rather than buying a commercial product, and there may have been excess produced as a by-product of keeping this fed and maintained, and this may have been what grandpa used.

However, my internet searches have not uncovered evidence of that type of thing going on other than in very historical times, where the close relationship between brewing and baking is noted. What I have found out is that whereas you can make bread using yeast from the leftover stuff at the bottom of a beer fermentation, it tastes bad because of the hops in it. But maybe if the brewery made a no/low hop beer such as a brown or mild, the residue from that would have been OK?

So my question is, does anyone have any knowledge of bakers and brewers working together in this manner in recent decades and what exactly was the arrangement?

TIM

suave's picture
suave

You would not be using stuff from the bottom of fermentation tank.  That's lager yeast, and it's not suitable for making bread.   Traditionally, the yeast was skimmed from the top, washed with water and then used bor baking, but by and large that practice was abandoned abouth 100 years before your grandfather retired.

greyspoke's picture
greyspoke

Thanks.  Well, as I way, the impression was that this was a less common practice.  Maybe he was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud carrying on doing things the way his family had (he came from a family of bakers I think).

Or maybe there was a bit more to it and my recollection is imperfect.

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Hi Greyspoke 

Not sure whether you reside in the UK as there is no information when clicking your avatar. I'm in Australia and enjoy baking breads using stout for wholemeals and got into home brewing as a way of having relatively cheap supply of stout for baking purposes. The fact that it is also a very pleasant drink enjoyed by friends and family is a bonus. When decanting the stout there is always a couple of litres left in the bottom of the fermenter, i tend to put this (sludge/dregs) into bottles and store it in the fridge. When i am wanting to or have the time to play i take some of this and add an equal amount of flour and treat it as you would a sour dough starter  where by after a couple of further feeds  of flour and water a lively ferment is available again this can be used in a similar way as the sourdough starter  and it is just a matter of how much you incorporate that will determine the speed of your dough's fermentation. I have experience no off flavours or tastes associated with using this form of yeast / Barm'

A good book that i have enjoyed reading is Elizabeth David's  'English Bread and Yeast Cookery. ISBN978-1-906502-87-4 (Grub street) It gives great insights into historical ways of baking.  

The interesting thing with commercial yeasts is the number of variants or strains available to the wine and beer industry many of these have been selected for their tolerance to and production of alcohol where as for bakers its the production of CO2 Gas, alcohol being a by product that is lost in the baking process anyway.

When i was a Bakery apprentice i was told by the old men  how they never had the luxury of 1 KG blocks of compressed yeast being delivered daily, and that was over 50 years  ago They spoke of potato peelings and yeast being grown on from a supply that was obtained from Brewers. I believe in Elizabeth Day's book she refers to a law that was enacted that compelled brewers to make yeast available to bakers.

 

regards Derek

greyspoke's picture
greyspoke

Thanks Derek, what you describe in your last paragraph is pretty much what I recall being told.  Of course, grandpa was a baker all his life so would have started off (not with his own business) in the 1920s or so.

I think that large-scale industrial production of beer started before it did for bread  So the brewers/distillers would have had the technology and facilities to breed and maintain yeast cultures, and I guess Distillers leveraged that (to use the current parlance) to develop a business making and selling breadmaking specific yeasts. I would like to take up brewing, but I seem to have rather too many projects on the go right now (the problems of being retired).

I am an Elizabeth David fan, but haven't red that one, I will look out for a copy. 

[I have now put a bit more info in my profile.]

TIM

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Excellent Tim, well done on your details , lovely part of the world Wales. i too have been retired for a number of years and have never been busier always something to do.  You will enjoy the book i'm sure.

kind regards Derek