Pasteur responded to Liebigs works, often through his own writings, and using results from his own experiments to support his theories. For example, in 1858, Pasteur wrote a paper trying to disprove Liebigs theory that fermentation cannot be caused by the growth of the yeast when it takes place when yeast is added to pure sugar-water. Pasteur thought that in pure sugar-water, yeast was both growing and disintegrating, and developed experiments to support his theories. Liebig, however, was not convinced, and claimed that Pasteur was not solving the questions he had about the decomposition in fermentation.
In 1869, Liebig responded to Pasteurs challenge, which he had made public ten years before. Liebig still held this ground, and mentioned that some of Pasteurs experiments were difficult to replicate and use effectively. Pasteur was furious, and suggested the Royal Academy hire a third scientist who would replicate his experiments and verify his results in order to support his theories. Neither Liebig nor the Academy responded.
Later, Pasteur demanded a meeting with Liebig, but Liebig did not him receive cordially, and refused to discuss the topic of fermentation.