Yeast Free Alcohol- Is There Yeast in Alcohol?

Alcoholic beverages have been enjoyed worldwide for thousands of years. But for some, such as those diagnosed with candidiasis or other sensitivities to yeast bacteria, fear that their prescribed yeast free diets will inhibit their enjoyment of alcoholic drinks. They have heard that all alcohol contains yeast, and therefore must be avoided at all costs. Does a yeast free alcohol exist and how would one know?

            Let us first observe how alcoholic beverages are manufactured. To create the alcohol ingredient, it is necessary to chemically react water, oxygen, and yeast bacteria. The automatic assumption here is that, because yeast is a reactant in the formation of alcohol, a yeast free alcohol could not exist, and rightly so.  However, the process is more extensive than that.

            After alcohol is formed, many breweries and wineries put their alcohol through several filtration and distillation processes that extract the unnecessary byproducts.  This includes yeast!  In fact, wineries are particularly careful to remove as much yeast from their finished product as possible, in order to protect both the wines color and clarity and also its taste.  This means that any self-respecting wine manufacturer goes to many lengths to assure a yeast free alcohol every time.

            This system of filtering, pasteurizing, and distilling of alcohol, unfortunately, is not necessarily done in all alcohol-manufacturing sites.  By law, in the United States all domestic and imported alcohol must be put through rigorous filtration and pasteurizing processes, ensuring that clean, yeast free alcohol is the only alcohol on the market.  But not every country demands pasteurized, yeast free alcohol.  Some countries actually pride themselves on unpasteurized alcohol, such as Czech Republic’s lager or Russia’s hard vodkas.  Because they have not been thoroughly filtered, yeast may still be present in the finished product.