🍞 Baking
Yeast Converter — Fresh, Active Dry and Instant
Enter a weight of yeast, choose the type you have and the type the recipe wants, then press Convert. Fresh 10 g is 5 g active dry or 4 g instant.
About the Yeast Converter — Fresh, Active Dry and Instant
Converting fresh yeast to dry yeast uses a working ratio of 1 part fresh to 0.5 part active dry to 0.4 part instant. So 30 g of fresh yeast becomes 15 g active dry or 12 g instant. Instant can go straight into the flour; active dry should be rehydrated first.
A level teaspoon holds about 3.1 g of instant or active dry yeast and about 9.5 g of crumbled fresh yeast. Brands differ, so treat the ratio as a starting point and adjust the rise time rather than the flour.
How the calculation works
- Fresh : active dry : instant = 1 : 0.5 : 0.4
- Active dry = fresh × 0.5 · Instant = fresh × 0.4
- 1 tsp instant ≈ 3.1 g · 1 tsp fresh ≈ 9.5 g
Reference values
| Fresh yeast | Active dry | Instant |
|---|---|---|
| 7 g | 3.5 g | 2.8 g |
| 10 g | 5 g | 4 g |
| 15 g | 7.5 g | 6 g |
| 21 g | 10.5 g | 8.4 g |
| 30 g | 15 g | 12 g |
| 42 g | 21 g | 16.8 g |
Worked examples
- 7 g = 3.5 g 2.8 g.
- 10 g = 5 g 4 g.
- 15 g = 7.5 g 6 g.
- 21 g = 10.5 g 8.4 g.
- 30 g = 15 g 12 g.
Checking the answer
Check one row of the Fresh yeast chart by hand. A difference of a whole step (10 or 100) means a decimal point moved; a difference in the last digit is just rounding. The first row, 7 g to 3.5 g, is the one worth memorising because it anchors every other figure in the table.
Common mistakes
- Scooping flour straight from the bag instead of spooning and levelling.
- Changing two variables at once, so a failure cannot be diagnosed.
- Converting a liquid cup with a dry-ingredient density.
Using this conversion
Fresh yeast and Active dry do not share a single multiplier, so the chart is the reference rather than the arithmetic. Reading the nearest row and adjusting from it is faster and less error-prone than rebuilding the formula each time, especially on a phone at a counter or a site office.
When precision matters
Where a Fresh yeast figure is used for a specification or a payment, take the value from the converter rather than from a rounded Active dry row, and note which convention was used so the other party can check it the same way.
A last check on the Fresh yeast table: 7 g 3.5 g sits at the base of the chart, and the rows above it step in the same proportion, so you can scale from that first row instead of reading every line. If a figure you were quoted falls between two rows, it is the Active dry side that has been rounded, not the conversion itself.