Mad Cook Master Chef



Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: North West England Posts: 5,134

Quote: Aunt Bea Originally Posted by This is interesting to me. I thought when you made beer the yeast converted the sugar into alcohol and then "starved to death" when the sugar was used up. If it works it would not be my first choice for bread but, it might make some interesting sourdough pancakes.



Is it really always sunny in Philadelphia?



More importantly, how did the beer turn out?



In the "olden days" before commercially made "cakes" of yeast, dried yeast and instant yeast were available the housewife went to the brewer to get her "barm" (liquid yeast) for bread making. It was a by-product of the beer making process skimmed off the top of the vat of fermenting beer.



In parts of the north of England a bread cake (like a muffin - ours not yours) is still called a "barm" cake and you hear people in sandwich shops asking for a ham and salad barm or a cheese barm, etc. Barm, as a raising agent was notoriously skittish and the word "barmy" is still a frequently heard dialect word for a silly person.



There is a notoriously love-it-or-hate-it yeast extract spread called "Marmite" available over here for spreading on your toast, which is made from the froth that is skimmed of the top of fermenting beers of the Guinness type. I can't recommend it.



It would be an interesting experiment to use your home-made "barm" to make bread but I wouldn't make a lot of bread in case it didn't work and it had to be wasted NB I know this is an old thread but I thought the OP's post was interesting and thought I'd add something in case anyone else was interested.In the "olden days" before commercially made "cakes" of yeast, dried yeast and instant yeast were available the housewife went to the brewer to get her "barm" (liquid yeast) for bread making. It was a by-product of the beer making process skimmed off the top of the vat of fermenting beer.In parts of the north of England a bread cake (like a muffin - ours not yours) is still called a "barm" cake and you hear people in sandwich shops asking for a ham and salad barm or a cheese barm, etc. Barm, as a raising agent was notoriously skittish and the word "barmy" is still a frequently heard dialect word for a silly person.There is a notoriously love-it-or-hate-it yeast extract spread called "Marmite" available over here for spreading on your toast, which is made from the froth that is skimmed of the top of fermenting beers of the Guinness type. I can't recommend it.It would be an interesting experiment to use your home-made "barm" to make bread but I wouldn't make a lot of bread in case it didn't work and it had to be wasted