Is there any functional difference between different yeast types, like those used for bread or alcohol making?

Question

Is there any functional difference between different yeast types, like those used for bread or alcohol making?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Yeast turns sugar or starch into alcohol, and that process stops when either all the sugar/starch is gone or when the alcohol content gets too high for the yeast.

Baker’s yeast has a low tolerance for alcohol, so it basically gives itself alcohol poisoning at some point and you can’t make beer that contains more than say 2.5% alcohol.

Brewer’s yeast isn’t as sensitive and it will continue working even at higher concentrations.

You could probably bake using brewer’s yeast, but you can only make very weak alcoholic drinks with baker’s yeast.