# Can city treated water significantly retard your bread yeast growth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073 "2011-11-16T00:05:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/1 "2011-11-16T00:05:04Z")
I’ve had trouble with my bread rising the last few times. The refrigerated yeast powder should be good for another year. Will high levels of chlorimines or chlorine in tap water retard or kill my bread yeast. Today was the worst. I just thought of the fact the city upped the treatment recently. There was some yeast action, but it could never get going properly even after about 5 hours. It was a tediously slow process. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/2 "2011-11-16T00:13:59Z")
As far as I know, chlorine can indeed be problematic. Have you tried using bottled water? That would give you a better answer as to whether it’s the water, the yeast itself, or the environment (too cool.) ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/3 "2011-11-16T00:23:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > As far as I know, chlorine can indeed be problematic. Have you tried using bottled water? That would give you a better answer as to whether it’s the water, the yeast itself, or the environment (too cool.) I make the dough in my bread machine so temp is correct. I’m proofing the yeast in a glass now with the tap water and am trying bottled in the morning. I didn’t think of the tap water until just before posting this question. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/4 "2011-11-16T02:51:02Z")
My guess is that while chlorine or chlorimine can retard yeast growth, I would be surprised if the effect is that noticeable in normal drinking water supplies. I’d be looking more at the yeast as the culprit. I’m curious to hear what your results show in using tap water vs. bottled. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/5 "2011-11-16T03:32:00Z")
I used to make sourdough and in most recipes I’ve seen they instruct you to let a pitcher of water stand out over night so the chemicals evaporate out. Now that I type it out it sounds kind of questionable. But, I always did it and never had a problem with my dough rising. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/6 "2011-11-16T10:45:02Z")
The tap water proofing failed. The bottled water proofing worked. I have yet another thing the city water is too nasty for using it for. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/7 "2011-11-16T13:22:32Z")
Wow, how interesting! I’ve always baked with city water and always used more yeast than recommended to get my stuff to rise. I’ll try letting water sit out overnight, to get rid of the chlorine. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/8 "2011-11-16T14:21:34Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > The tap water proofing failed. The bottled water proofing worked. I have yet another thing the city water is too nasty for using it for. :mad: Interesting, indeed. I guess my initial post was correct, though I am surprised that it’s this obvious. Boiling or letting the water sit is supposed to help with chlorine, but, from my understanding, chloramine takes much longer to dissipate. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/9 "2011-11-16T14:36:59Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Interesting, indeed. I guess my initial post was correct, though I am surprised that it’s this obvious. > > Boiling or letting the water sit is supposed to help with chlorine, but, from my understanding, chloramine takes much longer to dissipate. The tap water yeast was completely flat 3 hours after trying to proof it. My bread used to be fine with tap water. The clean bottled water and tap water setting over 24 hours had fully active yeast in a short time. The city water has obviously reached lethal levels of treatment for my bread making. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/10 "2011-11-16T15:50:58Z")
letting city tap water sit open for a day to allow the chlorine to dissipate is also good for plants. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/11 "2011-11-16T16:16:59Z")
Am I the only who was quickly scanning this forum’s thread titles and read “bread yeast” as “breast”? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/12 "2011-11-16T17:53:49Z")
I’m 5 minutes away from a large fluffy loaf coming out of the oven. I’m glad I found this out before I tried to bring bread baked Thanksgiving morning for the meal. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/13 "2011-11-16T17:55:09Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Am I the only who was quickly scanning this forum’s thread titles and read “bread yeast” as “breast”? 🙂 There is bread that looks like a breast. I think it’s a holiday bread, but don’t have time to look in my bread books. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/14 "2011-11-16T17:56:22Z")
When a city does work on the water lines that requires opening the line, they will often super-chlorinate in order to kill any unwanted microbes that may have entered the system. You might give it a few days and see if you can get the yeast to proof. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/15 "2011-11-16T18:31:39Z")
For what it’s worth, I use bottled water with yeast doughs because my well water is so hard and limey. It definitely makes a difference for me. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/16 "2011-11-16T18:54:30Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Am I the only who was quickly scanning this forum’s thread titles and read “bread yeast” as “breast”? 🙂 The [Brioche](http://www.wizardrecipes.com/recipes/deliciuous+brioche.html) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/17 "2011-11-16T18:59:36Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > The [Brioche](http://www.wizardrecipes.com/recipes/deliciuous+brioche.html) How about them nipples! ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-city-treated-water-significantly-retard-your-bread-yeast-growth/603073/18 "2011-11-16T19:40:16Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Am I the only who was quickly scanning this forum’s thread titles and read “bread yeast” as “breast”? 🙂 No. No, you weren’t! :o