This is an extremely specialized, very scientific (but fun) look at yeast pertaining to bread and beer. It really gives you all the information you could ever want about yeast and then some, and a pretty good science lesson to boot.

The book starts with a thorough lesson on yeast and its history. From there you learn basic recipes to make beer and bread, and then there's a chapter of experiments like seeing how your hands and your friends' hands (clean) produce different results with sourdough depending on factors like plunging them in ice water first and so on.

The recipes are very modern traditional. The beer recipes require pounds of purchased ingredients. The bread recipes are standard wheat breads like rolls, sourdough and french bread. I love fermenting but I do crazy wild fermentation along the lines of Pascal Baudar. My favorite yeast is an elderflower yeast I keep in a jar of sugar water from wild elderflowers gathered last spring, and I also love using frozen wild fruits like elderberries and wild grapes to start wild wines. And I love making sourdough bread but I have to do gluten free, which is beyond the scope of this book.

The text is also sometimes quite scientific. For example, on the crabtree effect:

If oxygen is present in fermenting yeast, glycolysis pyruvate is thrust into the mitochondria and the Krebs Cycle will take place through a process known as oxidative phosphorylation, or respiration. In the presence of oxygen, yeast make more ATP, or energy, and carbon dioxide plus water as a result.

Line illustrations are used throughout the book. There are four beer recipes like crisp helles lager and farmer's blend. There are four bread recipes like sourdough crackers and frenchies. Interesting yeast experiments include capturing wild yeast from nearby fruits and capturing yeast from favorite beers.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

The Yeast Fermentation Handbook is an interesting niche guide for people interested in the mechanics and uses for yeast in daily life (especially bread and brewing). Released 5th Nov 2019 by Callisto on their Rockridge Press imprint, it's 154 pages and available in paperback and ebook format.

The book follows a logical progression: what yeast is, what it does (and doesn't), how to handle yeast optimally and control as many variables as possible to ensure the best outcomes, beer specific info and recipes, bread specific info and recipes, and my absolute favorite chapter - experimenting with yeasts. Honestly the experiments from the last chapter are well worth the price of admission - the author has an engaging and layman accessible way of making the potentially complex chemistry processes fun and understandable. The illustrations throughout are simple, but clear and easy to follow.

It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. The book also includes a nice (interactive) links and resources list, a bibliography, glossary, and short author bio.

This would make a superlative resource book for the home baker or brewer as well as homesteaders, wildcrafters, and the like. It would also be a really cool support text for a science unit in a classroom or library activity setting. There is a super nifty and relevant experiment for catching and isolating strains of wild/feral yeast which is both cool and useful.

Five stars. This is an amazing book and will become a reference for homesteaders, brewers, bakers, and crafters.