DoughPlan

Instant, Active Dry or Fresh Yeast for Pizza Dough

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated

For pizza dough, instant dry, active dry and fresh yeast all work. What changes is the weight. Ooni's classic dough lists 2.7 g of instant yeast, 3.5 g of active dry or 8.5 g of fresh for the same batch, so active dry is about 1.3 times the instant amount and fresh is about 3.15 times. DoughPlan uses 1.3125 and 3.125, the ratios of the yeast table its model is fitted to. Red Star Yeast, by contrast, treats instant and active dry as interchangeable. Choose your yeast in the planner and it converts for you.

Conversion ratios from published sources

Each source in grams of dry yeast per gram of instant. Where a source gives grams for several types, the ratios are our arithmetic.

SourceInstantActive dryFresh (cake)
DoughPlan (yeast table)11.31253.125
Ooni classic pizza dough (2.7 g, 3.5 g, 8.5 g)11.303.15
Ooni Detroit-style (3 g, 4.5 g, 9 g)11.53
Red Star Yeast chart11 (interchangeable)about 2.7
AVPN regulations1 (dry yeast, type not specified)same as instant3

Red Star's chart gives one 7 g packet of "active or instant dry yeast" for up to 4 cups of flour and one third of a 2 oz cake of fresh yeast for the same flour. A third of 2 oz is about 18.9 g, which is 2.7 times 7 g. The AVPN regulations do not separate active dry from instant.

Why the sources differ

Ooni and our table use a larger amount of active dry than of instant. Red Star Yeast, a manufacturer, says that "any of the dry yeast types (Active Dry Yeast or Instant Yeast) may be substituted". Across the table the active dry ratio runs from 1 to 1.5 and the fresh ratio from 2.7 to 3.15, a spread of about 15% for fresh yeast.

Even so, it is small next to the effect of temperature. Between a 18 and a 24 °C kitchen, the yeast for an 8 hour dough changes by a factor of about three (0.179% against 0.060%). In our model, 30% more yeast shortens the fermentation by only about 17%, and doubling the yeast cuts the time by about 40%. So do not agonise over the ratio; choose one and adjust after the first bake.

Grams for a 4 pizza batch

For 4 balls of 250 g, the home oven Neapolitan preset (65% water, 2.8% salt), the DoughPlan engine gives these yeast amounts. The flour is about 604 g in every case.

FermentationInstant dryActive dryFresh
8 hours at 21 °C, no fridge0.62 g (0.102%)0.81 g (0.134%)1.93 g (0.320%)
2 days in the fridge0.54 g (0.089%)0.71 g (0.117%)1.68 g (0.278%)

The fridge schedule is the planner's default: 2 hours at 21 °C, 48 hours at 4 °C, then 3 hours at 21 °C. More combinations are in how much yeast for pizza dough.

How to add each type

Water temperature matters to the dough temperature, and that matters more than the yeast type; see same day pizza dough for the tips.

Frequently asked questions

Can I swap instant and active dry yeast 1 to 1?

Red Star Yeast says yes. Ooni and DoughPlan's table use about 1.3 times as much active dry. For a long ferment the difference is small compared with your kitchen's temperature. Start with the larger amount if you want the dough to be ready on time, the smaller if you would rather it be slow.

How much fresh yeast equals 1 g of dry yeast?

Between 2.7 g (Red Star) and 3.15 g (Ooni's instant ratio). AVPN uses 3 g of fresh yeast for 1 g of dry. DoughPlan uses 3.125.

Does the yeast type change the schedule?

No. The model sets the schedule from the amount of active yeast, so once the type is converted the times are the same. The planner shows the same steps whichever yeast you choose. See how long to cold ferment pizza dough.

Next steps

Sources