Yeast, to most people, is a safe bacteria that is the main ingredient in a huge amount of food eaten every day in the United States. Yeast leaves bread, curdles cottage cheese, and ferments wines, beers, and other alcoholic beverages. But for some people, medically prescribed diets limit all yeast consumption. This can be devastating for those who enjoy a bottle of beer or a glass of wine, as there seems to be no alcohol without yeast.

So is there such a thing as alcohol without yeast?

All alcoholic beverages are fermented during the manufacturing process. This fermentation is what makes alcohol present in beers, wines, whiskeys, etc. For this fermentation to take place, the yeast reacts with oxygen and alcohol is the product. This means that in order to have an alcoholic beverage, yeast must be present.

However, the fact that yeast is used in making alcohol does not necessarily mean that yeast-free alcohol does not exist. Wineries, for example, ferment their drinks with yeast. But through various distillation processes, including rigorous filtration procedures, nearly all yeast residue is removed from the finished product. This is to ensure that the wine is clear, colourful, flavorful, fragrant and that no further reactions continue within the bottle. If yeast bacteria were still present in a finished product, the yeast would continue to react and make the wine too alcoholic and ruin the flavor.

However, for beers, vodkas, bourbons, rums, and other alcoholic beverages, great care must be taken, especially if the alcohol is imported. Some breweries are not as particular about yeast content as wineries are. In Russia and the Czech Republic, for example, vodkas and beers are not pasteurized and contain a significant amount of active yeast bacteria. The drinks take on a very different flavor as they age inside the bottle.

However, by law, all domestic beers must be pasteurized and filtered. This means that all domestically brewed beverages, such as Budweiser or Captain Morgan, are examples of unleavened alcohol.

I recommend that you consult a doctor before making any changes to your current diet. I am not a doctor with medical training and cannot speak to the tolerances of each person; nor can all types of alcohol be treated as yeast-free, regardless of law or probability.