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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Re: baking yeast ("John Stewart")
  re:Shipping Homebrew, use Ship 'N Store boxes, yeah (kloeffler)
  Baking yeast (Thomas Rohner)


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Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 09:41:47 -0600
From: "John Stewart" <john at johnstewart.com>
Subject: Re: baking yeast

Hello HBDers! Been a subscriber for some time. I used to brew now and
again, but haven't in some years. I find the discussions here usually
fascinating, frequently esoteric, and sometimes totally bewildering.
Some of you guys are totally nuts. It makes me realize how bad a
brewer I actually was. =)

Just wanted to comment on this thread:

> From: David Scheidt <dscheidt at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: baking yeast
>
> As for no knead breads go, I'm not impressed by the one that was in NYT a
> year or so ago.  It's something of a forgotten fact that any dough with
> suffeicently high hydration, will develop the gluten, if allowed to set
> for a long enough time.  It was only with the invention of the mechanical
> mixer that kneading to develop the gluten became the universal way of
> making bread.  It saves time and space, and so money.

I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated, a truly amazingly good cooking
magazine. No ads, just extremely well tested recipes and equipment
reviews (they also have a TV show on PBS, America's Test Kitchen, also
very good).

Their latest (Jan/Feb 2008) issue includes "No Knead Bread Recipe
2.0". They took that New York Times no knead bread recipe, tested it
with 5 inexperienced bakers, and then improved it based on the
results.

Two additional ingredients they added, to add depth and character to
the bread, are a tablespoon of vinegar (to replicate a sourdough type
flavor) and 3 ounces of mild lager (to add a complexity of flavor not
delivered by the instant yeast).

I've made a few loaves myself now, never having baked before, and I
think it's some of the best bread I've had. And oh so easy and cheap
(I'm sure the largest expense is running my oven for 2 hours).

If anyone wants the complete recipe, drop me a line at john at
johnstewart dot com. Definitely worth picking up this issue, though
(also the French Onion Soup recipe in the same issue resulted in the
best I've ever had).

johnS


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Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:00:17 +0000
From: kloeffler at comcast.net
Subject: re:Shipping Homebrew, use Ship 'N Store boxes, yeah

I'll second the use of the cardboard/styrofoam inserts that are available.

My wife and I are wine lovers (sorry, beer has taken a back seat to wine),
and we frequently buy wine from California wineries (and Michigan ones too).
They all ship in these types of containers and never once have we had an issue.

You might want to check ULINE for these shippers as well.  My latest catalog
had multiple types.

Check:
http://www.uline.com/

you can try: http://www.uline.com/Group_237.asp

for the exact page the different shippers are on.

You don't need a $500 minimum from them.

Karl Loeffler
Chesterfield, MI


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Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:10:16 +0100
From: Thomas Rohner <t.rohner at bluewin.ch>
Subject: Baking yeast

Hi brewers and bakers

I've started baking bread even before i started brewing beer. The 
learning curve in my baking endeavours took longer than in brewing. This 
is because i read many good books on brewing, but none for baking. I 
have found out that there are many books about baking on the market, 
even more than about brewing. The quality of most of this books is quite 
low. They have tons of receipes, but fail to cover the basics. So i 
baked many breads from out of these "bad" books, but i wasn't really 
happy with them. Sure they tasted ok, but i knew it could be better. 
Then i got some input from the internet community, that enlightened me. 
This website also has a book listing. I ordered one of those books and 
i'm very happy with it. The website is in german only, but the book is 
in english.
The link is:  www.petras-brotkasten.de
The book is:  "Bread" by Jeffrey Hamelman
Another good link on baking videos: 
http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/video.html

Now to the original yeast question: According to this book, a certain 
proportion of the wheat starch is damaged during milling. It's around 
8-9% in north america and around 7% in europe. This is due to different 
milling techniques.
This damaged starch is converted by amylase enzymes present in the 
flour. I think the accessability of this damaged starch is similar to 
gelatinized starch in the mash.
After being converted to sugar, the yeast does what it can do best. This 
happens mainly in the main rise / primary fermentation. Longer primary 
fermentations with less yeast or the use of a preferment will enhance 
flavour and keeping quality of a bread.
I know, this was a little off topic, but baking and brewing are quite 
close cousins.

Happy brewing and baking

Thomas



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