Beers with no Yeast: Are There Any?

In short. No. There are no beers with no yeast. In general, the answer to this question is very straightforward. You simply cannot make any alcoholic beverage without yeast.

However, depending on the context of the question, the answer can get a little bit more complex.

How Beer Is Made

First, a brief overview of how beer is made is a good place to start.

From the beginning of beer, this beverage has been made pretty much in the same way. It is thought that millennia ago, as people were settling down and domesticating, part of that process included farming and harvesting grain.

Farming allowed people to stop the hunter gatherer life and actually grow their own food.

But what to do with the food?

Well, grain was obviously turned into bread, though it was what is called unleavened at the time– think of tortillas and flat bread.

But at some point, bread dough, or some sort of cereal, was left out for too long, “went bad,” and essentially fermented.

And that is how beer was born.

Some brave soul decided to taste the fermented oatmeal, or wheat meal, or barley meal, caught a slight buzz, and began brewing.

Thus, the brewing process was relatively simple, and it has, or at least I can, remain so today.

Harvest grain, roast it to unlock the sugars inside, grind the grain to expose those sugars, steep the grain in hot water, and allow that liquid, now called “wort“ to ferment. At some point along the way, either before or after fermentation, hops are added to cut down on the sweetness from the sugary grain.

From that point forward, it was not uncommon to see brewers and bakers side-by-side, with their shops adjacent to each other, and bakers using whatever leftover yeast brewers had left over after the production of beer.

It is most likely that beer came along before leavened bread, that is bread that rises with the help of yeast.

Yeast

You see, that is the sole function of yeast, a single celled, living organism that seeks sugar in its environment, consumes the sugar, and converts it as a waste product to ethanol and carbon dioxide.

In beer, this waste product becomes the alcohol and the foam beer lovers have come to adore.

Free Yeast Analysis

In bread, the carbon dioxide is what helps the bread rise by pushing out against the dough and creating little pockets of air, and of course the alcohol is burned off in the oven while the bread bakes.

There are literally hundreds of different strains of yeast, but they all do the same thing – they search for sugar, they consume the sugar for energy, and they produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste byproducts.

Beer with no Yeast

Hence, the simple answer to the question of beer with no yeast is that there is no such thing.

If the very definition of beer is a grain tea of sorts that is fermented, then there can be no beer without yeast, because there cannot be alcoholic fermentation without yeast.

Of course, there are other kinds of fermentation.

There is the type of fermentation that takes place in the body when we exercise. As we run out of breath, we are not providing enough oxygen to our cells to create energy. So our cells undergo a process called fermentation that produces the energy we need in the absence of oxygen.

There is also bacterial fermentation in yogurts, kombuchas, and fermented fruits and vegetables.

Yeast is not always required for these processes, but alcohol will not ever be produced as a result, which is fine for yogurt and kombucha, but not so fine for beer and wine.

How Else Is Yeast Used?

Across the industries that use yeast, yeast always produces alcohol.

As we have discussed, yeast is essential to leavened bread. Early men and women were delighted to find a lighter fluffier option to what was previously only flat and much denser bread.

Yeast is used in the production of wine, obviously. In fact, wine probably predates beer by thousands of years, as wine can pretty much make itself. Because yeast is so prevalent in the atmosphere, as long as the conditions are warm enough, and not too hot, crushed grapes that fall from the vine will attract yeast, which will ferment wine right there at the feet of the very vines that grow the grapes.

Fermentation really is that straightforward.

Yeast is also necessary for the production of bio fuel. Large corn producers now have an opportunity to provide their grain as a source of ethanol, a greener option to run gas powered vehicles. And all it takes to turn that corn into a new kind of gas is yeast.

What About Non Alcoholic Beer?

Okay, okay, you say. But what about non-alcoholic beer? Does that have yeast too?

Yes.

All non-alcoholic beer, indeed, all non-alcoholic beverages that are intended to be alcoholic, have yeast by necessity.

To make nonalcoholic beer, brewers will still brew beer in the standard way. After fermentation with yeast then, they will subject the beer to one of a few processes that remove the alcohol.

One of the things that beer drinkers love about beer is the resulting flavor and aroma that comes from yeast fermentation. Without that part of the process, you simply have grain tea.

Wild Yeast

One final note worth mentioning in the conversation around beer without yeast is the existence of wild yeast.

Sometimes, when brewers are wondering about whether yeast is necessary in beer, they’re actually asking whether they have to buy commercially produced yeast.

And in that case, the answer is no.

It is essential to remember that beer was made for thousands of years without commercial intervention, using wild yeast, which really just meant relying on nature to take its natural course.

Still today, you can go through the very simple process of roasting grain, grinding it up, steeping it in hot water, adding hops, covering your vessel with cheesecloth, and allowing wild yeast to ferment your beer.

It would certainly be a fun experiment to undergo.

Cheers!

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