Question Regarding Yeast and The Temperature Of The Water

[A-Neibs]

I have a quick question about the temperature of the water when making dough and using yeast. I'm pretty new to pizza and bread making. I've heard that you are supposed to use water that is 105-115 degrees to activate yeast and that if it's much hotter, it will kill the yeast. I have a friend who works for a pizza place and he told me they use cold water with their pizza. I've been watching some other things and they've mentioned to use room temperature water. So I'm trying to figure this out. Does the hot water only apply to active dry yeast. I just bought some fresh yeast. Do I just use room temperature water with it? Please excuse me if these are dumb questions. Just trying to understand. Thanks a bunch.

[Pete-zza]

A-Neibs,

You might take a look at this PMQ Think Tank thread: http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7527&p=51038&hilit=#p50947. Also, you might check out the definitions for the three forms of yeast in the forum's Pizza Glossary at http://www.pizzamaking.com/pizza_glossary.html. You might also keep in mind that the water temperature is often selected to achieve a particular finished dough temperature, not solely because of the type of yeast used. Most forms of yeast do not like direct physical contact with very high or very low water temperatures, but they will tolerate them more if they are added to the flour so that they are buffered by the flour before adding the water. Of the three forms of yeast, compressed yeast (aka cake yeast, fresh yeast and wet yeast) best tolerates cold water. The key is to learn how each type of yeast should be used and how to achieve the desired finished dough temperature for each yeast type.

If there are any remaining questions after you have read the above, feel free to post them.

Peter