Introduction: Bulk Yeast Storage - After Opening the Bag
This Ible is purely informational; with no design, make, or fix. It is likely that there are plenty of folks that already know this, but I did not find a satisfying answer when I looked.
Like most people in the before, yeast was bought whenever the four-ounce yeast jar in the fridge got low. Just reach up on the grocery store shelf and grab a jar. In the after, jars of yeast were and still are largely unavailable. Fortunately, one pound bags of yeast were available online.
The question was; how to store a pound of yeast once the bag was opened? Four empty four-ounce yeast jars is the easy answer but there was only one partially filled jar. So the requirements for storage jars were :
- Glass
- Amber tint
- Hermetically sealed
- Wide mouth
- Big enough to hold at least 16-ounces of yeast by weight
The volume of yeast is greater than its weight. There were two approaches to calculating the volume of the yeast. The answers came out close.
- Sixteen ounces (weight) of yeast times 1.5 (conversion) = 24 fluid ounces of yeast (710 ml).
- The one pound bag of yeast is 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches by 4 inches, or 35 cubic inches. Thirty-five cubic inches times 0.554113 (conversion) = 19.4 fluid ounces (574 ml).
Four or eight-ounce jars that met the criteria were not available. I elected to go with two one pint jars (16 ounces x 2) per bag to keep from exposing all of the yeast each time a bottle was opened, They came in a pack of four so both the Activated Dry Yeast and the Instant Yeast could be done with one purchase.
* “Jarden Home Brands 1440069045 Ball Collection Elite Performance Series Amber WM (16oz) Pint 4/4 - Quantity 1”, was selected (Ball glass, $20,00 USD Amazon).
This was my first time opening a vacuum sealed bag of yeast. Sealed, the yeast is a hard brick. Opened, the yeast expanded slightly, became free flowing, and poured easily. The expansion meant that the yeast was somewhere in between the calculated 19.4 and 24 fluid ounces So two one pint jars was still a good answer.
All that was left was to seal the jars, label them, and put them to the back of the fridge until needed.
Some people report good results with two to three year old yeast. They are careful to say that the yeast comes out of the fridge and is open only long enough to be measured.
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Yeast info
1 pound brick = 4 x 4-ounce (weight) jars = 64 each 0.25-ounce packets
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Activated Dry Yeast is dissolved into water before use in recipes and is slower to rise
Fast-rising yeast is a faster form of Activated Dry Yeast
Instant Yeast is added directly to recipes (also fast rising yeast)
Saf-Instant Yeast, Gold is intended for sweet doughs
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King Arthur flour has a good write-up of the types of yeasts.
