How is yeast used to make beer?
Without yeast, beer would be weak, flat and taste bad. The addition of brewers yeast is essential to fermentation because it converts sugars into alcohol, creates the carbon dioxide “fizz” and affects the taste of the beer. Two main types of yeast are used in brewing.DefinitionYeast is a single-celled organism. In brewing, living yeast cells reproduce and feed on the other ingredients, mainly the sugars, and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as byproducts.Adding YeastBrewers add, or “pitch,” yeast to the cooled wort–a boiled mixture of water, grains, hops and malt sugars–before pouring into the fermentation vessel.Ale YeastsYeast strains used to produce ales are also known as “top fermenting” yeast because they float on top of the brew while it ferments. After the sugar in the mixture is consumed, the yeast becomes dormant and falls to the bottom of the brew.Lager YeastsLager yeast strains are also called “bottom fermenting” yeast because they spend most of the brewing cycle at the
