Barm vs. Yeast — What's the Difference?

Barm is the foam or scum formed on the top of a fermenting liquid, such as beer, wine, or feedstock for spirits or industrial ethanol distillation. It is used to leaven bread, or set up fermentation in a new batch of liquor.

Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized.

The yeasty foam that rises to the surface of fermenting malt liquors and can be used to leaven bread.

A microscopic fungus consisting of single oval cells that reproduce by budding, and capable of converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Bosom, lap.

Any of various unicellular fungi of the genus Saccharomyces, especially S. cerevisiae, reproducing asexually by budding or sexually through the production of ascospores and capable of fermenting carbohydrates.

Foam rising upon beer, or other malt liquors, when fermenting, and used as leaven in making bread and in brewing; yeast.

Any of numerous fungi that exhibit a one-celled growth form and reproduce by budding, including certain candidas that can cause infections in humans.

A small, flat, round individual loaf or roll of bread.

Froth consisting of yeast cells together with the carbon dioxide they produce in the process of fermentation, present in or added to fruit juices and other substances in the production of alcoholic beverages.

To spurge; foam

A powdered or compressed commercial preparation of yeast cells, used chiefly as a leavening agent or as a dietary supplement.

Foam rising upon beer, or other malt liquors, when fermenting, and used as leaven in making bread and in brewing; yeast.

An agent of ferment or activity

The lap or bosom.

An often humid, yellowish froth produced by fermenting malt worts, and used to brew beer, leaven bread, and also used in certain medicines.

A commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey

A single-celled fungus of a wide variety of taxonomic families.

A true yeast or budding yeast in order Saccharomycetales.

Candida, a ubiquitous fungus that can cause various kinds of infections in humans.

(figuratively) A frothy foam.

To ferment.

(of something prepared with a yeasted dough) To rise.

To exaggerate.

The foam, or troth (top yeast), or the sediment (bottom yeast), of beer or other in fermentation, which contains the yeast plant or its spores, and under certain conditions produces fermentation in saccharine or farinaceous substances; a preparation used for raising dough for bread or cakes, and making it light and puffy; barm; ferment.

Spume, or foam, of water.

A form of fungus which grows as individual rounded cells, rather than in a mycelium, and reproduces by budding; esp. members of the orders Endomycetales and Moniliales. Some fungi may grow both as a yeast or as a mycelium, depending on the conditions of growth.

A commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey

Any of various single-celled fungi that reproduce asexually by budding or division