Keep on rising – Ian Carey featuring Michelle Shellers
Every time I hear this song I have to do a little dance. Great beat, great vibe. And today it fits perfectly with the subject I want to talk about: yeast. And why yeast makes bread rise.
Yes, yeast. Not exactly the rockstar of the kitchen, but quietly responsible for some of the greatest things we eat and drink. Bread. Beer. Wine. Champagne. Pizza dough. Focaccia. Things that quite literally rise.
So today, let’s rise ourselves a little higher in knowledge and take a closer look at this tiny living thing that has been helping humans make delicious food for thousands of years.
My First Encounter With Yeast
My first real experience with yeast happened when I was still a student cook, working in an Italian restaurant called Coco Pazzo. I’ve mentioned the place and its patron chef Robert before, and for good reason. I learned a lot in that kitchen.
We worked split shifts.
Lunch service from around 10:00 until roughly 14:30 or 15:00 depending on how long guests stayed. Then a break until 17:00, when we’d return for staff dinner before the evening service started at 18:00.
Because I lived too far away to go home during the break, I stayed at the restaurant. Sometimes I would work on school assignments or dive into the treasure trove of old cookbooks Robert kept in his office. Dutch, French, Italian… some dating back to the early 1900s. A culinary history library hiding in plain sight.
Other days, Mark (the other student cook) and I stayed in the kitchen to practice techniques. We tried new things constantly. One week we worked our way through recipes from the book Chocolate by Michel Roux, making chocolate decorations like fans in three colors and experimenting with things like bubble wrap to create textures.
But one afternoon something else caught our attention. An old Italian cookbook from the 1920s. Inside it: a focaccia recipe. Naturally, we asked Robert to show us how to make it. And that’s when yeast entered the picture.
Respect the Yeast
Robert was very clear about one thing: fresh yeast is delicate.
Treat it wrong and it simply stops working. No drama. No warning. Just… nothing.
He drilled three rules into us:
• Use lukewarm liquid, never hot.
• Give the dough time and patience to rise.
• And most importantly: add the salt last, after the yeast has started working.
Salt too early or liquid too hot and the yeast dies. No rise. No fluffy focaccia. Just a sad, flat piece of dough. And that stuck with me. Because yeast may be tiny, but it demands respect.
So, What Actually Makes Bread Rise?
Now comes the fun part.
Yeast is a living microorganism. A single-celled fungus, if we want to get slightly nerdy about it. And like most living things, yeast likes to eat. Specifically: sugars.
When yeast consumes sugar, something magical happens. Through a process called fermentation, the yeast converts those sugars into two things:
• carbon dioxide gas (CO₂)
• a small amount of alcohol
Here’s the “aha” moment.
The carbon dioxide gas forms tiny bubbles inside the dough. Those bubbles get trapped in the gluten network of the dough, which stretches like a balloon around them. More gas → bigger bubbles → the dough rises.
So, when you see dough slowly expanding on the counter, that’s not magic. That’s millions of tiny yeast cells eating sugar and breathing out gas. Bread rising is basically microscopic baking teamwork.
Yeast in Drinks
Bread is only half the story. Yeast is also responsible for some of humanity’s favorite drinks.
Beer has relied on yeast for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations were already fermenting grains long before we fully understood what yeast even was.
Wine works the same way. Yeast converts the natural sugars in grapes into alcohol during fermentation. Cider does the same with apples. Kombucha uses a mixed culture of yeast and bacteria working together.
And then there’s champagne. Traditional champagne uses a second fermentation inside the bottle, known as the méthode champenoise. Yeast is added to the wine along with sugar, and as fermentation happens again, carbon dioxide builds up inside the sealed bottle. That trapped gas becomes the bubbles.
So, the next time you open a bottle of champagne and see those elegant little bubbles rising through the glass… Thank the yeast.
Fresh Yeast vs Dry Yeast
In baking you’ll often see two types of yeast.
Fresh yeast
Soft, crumbly, slightly moist. Very active but also delicate. Many professional bakers love it for its reliable performance and subtle flavor.
Dry yeast
Granulated and much more stable. It lasts longer and is easier to store, making it perfect for home bakers.
Both work well, but fresh yeast tends to be more sensitive to temperature and handling. Which brings us back to Robert’s lesson: Patience. Respect. Lukewarm liquids.
A Tiny Note About Sourdough
Sourdough works a little differently. Instead of commercial yeast, sourdough uses wild yeast and bacteria that naturally live in flour and in the environment. That fermentation process is slower and more complex, creating the tangy flavors sourdough bread is famous for.
But sourdough is a whole world on its own… and I’ll save that deeper dive for another post.
Strange and Wonderful Yeast Uses
Yeast pops up in places people don’t always expect.
For example:
• Nutritional yeast – loved by vegans for its cheesy flavor
• Yeast extract like Marmite or Vegemite
• Vitamin supplements made from yeast
• Even research into biofuels
Tiny organism. Huge résumé.
The Lesson Hidden in Yeast
What fascinates me most about yeast is how much we trust it without really thinking about it.
You mix flour, water, yeast, and salt. You wait. And somehow… the dough rises. Understanding why yeast makes bread rise helps you avoid mistakes.
Bread didn’t rise?
Maybe the liquid was too hot.
Maybe the yeast was old.
Maybe salt went in too early.
Knowledge turns kitchen frustration into learning. But there’s also a bigger lesson here.
Yeast teaches patience. You can’t rush fermentation. You can’t force dough to rise faster by staring at it. You give it the right conditions… and then you trust the process. That’s true in baking. And honestly, it’s not a bad philosophy for life either.
Your Turn
Now I’m curious. What do you use yeast for most often?
Bread? Pizza dough? Brewing beer? Making cider? Something unusual? And have you ever had a yeast experiment fail spectacularly? No judgment here. Every baker has at least one dough disaster story.
One Last Rising Thought
So, the next time you see dough slowly expanding on the counter or bubbles dancing in a glass of champagne…
Remember what’s really happening. Millions of tiny living organisms quietly doing their job. No spotlight. No applause. Just working away in the background. And honestly? That’s pretty inspiring.
Stay curious, stay patient… and whatever you’re working on right now.
keep on rising!
Yohan