*How Much Bread Yeast Do You Need?*
Easy Math - It May Be More Than You Think!
By: Spitfire
29 April 2022

We're doing a massive main pantry inventory, purge and replacement of out of date stuff.

Yesterday I got to the big 2 pound (32 US oz) bricks of Saft Instant Yeast, the stuff stored on the shelf at 62F. Most of them were dated 2009! I know from previous testing that this yeast stored at this temperature is no longer of much use. Here's the article I wrote about different storage temperatures and longevity for yeast;

So, we want to replace this yeast but it dawned on my engineering brain that I really had no idea how much we needed to meet our 5 year bread making goal, so I started the process of figuring that out.

First Wifee and I decided that based on the early days of Covid when we couldn't get store bought bread, we'd make an average of 2 loaves every week.

• 2 loaves per week * 52 weeks in a year = 104 loaves in a year.
• 104 loaves * 5 years = 520 loaves to meet our 5 year goal

Our bread maker machine on the fast 60 minute cycle uses 2 tablespoons of yeast which when I weighed it on a sensitive scale equaled 0.75 US Ounces per loaf of bread so;

• 32 oz in a brick of yeast / 0.75 oz yeast in one loaf = 42 loaves per 32 oz brick of yeast
• It surprised me that 2 lbs of yeast only made 42 loaves! To meet our 5 year, 520 loaf goal;
• 520 loaves / 42 loaves per 2 lb brick = 12.4 bricks of yeast needed.

OK, so if we're not impatient and are willing to let the machine take 2 hours per loaf, how much yeast would we need then? The standard 2 hour recipe for our machine calls for 4 teaspoons of yeast which weighs 0.50 US ounces, so;

• 32 oz in a brick of yeast / 0.50 oz yeast in one loaf = 64 loaves per 32 oz brick of yeast

Carry that out to meet our 5 year goal;

• 520 loaves / 64 loaves per 2 lb brick = 8.1 bricks of yeast needed.
• Just being patient saves a lot of yeast!

If we could only get the 1 pound bricks of yeast (happened in our AO in the early days of Covid) we'd just multiply the number of 2 pound bricks needed by 2.

If you make other breads or cakes that need yeast you'll need to repeat these calculations and add to the total.

I hope this article gave you some food for thought and thanks for the read.

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