What are the advantages of the more esoteric yeast for DIY CO2?
Right off, I will say that you can certainly use the common bakers yeast with great success. It is more than adequate. But there are certain factors where you may want to optimize the performance of your system. One downright frustrating thing about DIY CO2 is the maintenance and replenishment of the mixture. You have to change your mixture every 7-14 days, depending on how well your particular formula works. Fourteen days seems to be the limit for most yeast mixtures in a two-liter bottle when using bakers yeast. This is due to the fact that the alcohol levels reach a point where it kills the yeast cells, even if it hasn’t used up all the sugar. The general consensus has been that it is the rise in acid levels that kills off the yeast. But this is probably not true. One way that has been proposed is to add baking powder as a buffer to the mixture to regulate the acids, but this does little to effect the alcohol levels. Oddly it is not the acids that are problematic. Yeast can generall
