Commercial yeast

When bakers (and brewers, for that matter) talk about yeast, they’re usually referring to one species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which takes its name from ancient Greek and Latin words related to sugar, fungus and beer.

The process of cultivating and purifying S. cerevisiae commercially was first developed in the mid-19th century. Later on, scientists bred different strains of this species for specific characteristics, including fast production of large volumes of carbon dioxide (for bread making), production of alcohol (for drinks production) and particular flavour profiles (for brewing and winemaking though, interestingly, not for bread making).