all a bit flat

I seem to have been having some issues with my bread making just recently.

The problem in question is that it's not rising properly.  I use a bread machine and I've had this issue before.  The solution was basically that I was using the wrong type of yeast.  I hadn't really realised there were different types of yeast, but it seems there are and the one I was using was not making the bread rise properly.

So I switched to the right type of yeast and bob's your mother's brother it started rising properly.  I also discovered - by accident - that I got even better rises if I let the yeast sit in the milk and sugar solution for a little while before adding the flour setting it going.  I guess it gave the yeast time to properly activate.

Well things had been going great and then I had a bit of an issue in that I dropped the container I use to hold the yeast and had to buy some more.  Since I started using this new batch it's gone back to the issue I mentioned above - not really rising properly.  And even if I try leaving it in the milk for a while it doesn't seem to help - indeed, where it used to go nice and frothy in that time it now just sits there.

Now the bread does rise a bit, but it's a really pathetic rise - about a third of some of the best ones I've had.

However, I did some research and it seems that sometimes the yeast you buy can be duff, so I started trying to do some experiments.  However, I have to confess these were a bit random.  I've just done some reading online and it would appear there's a bit more a sensible way to test yeast (similar, actually, to what I was doing by leaving it) and it says if it fails that test then the yeast is duff.

I haven't actually done that yet, but will give it a go next weekend.  I have to buy a thermometer to make sure the water temperature is reasonable - I have been meaning to get one a while, to be fair - as you can overheat yeast and kill it, but also if the liquid is too cold then that will impair the yeast.

I had actually been thinking that the recent change in weather to colder temperatures was a part of it - certainly, as I say, cold can be an issue.

What is slightly worrying, though, is that I actually opened a separate packet of yeast and tested that too and got poor results as well.  It will be annoying if both batches are duff, although to be fair it was the same make, so perhaps the make is poor so I will be buying another make and trying that too.

Anyway, basic points is I'm going to be a bit more scientific about things this next weekend and see if I can't work out if it's the yeast that's duff or my liquid has just been too hot or too cold.