yeast nutrient

[dynomax]

I typically use Dry yeast, as included with the kits i purchase. Off topic, i am most pleased with Coopers yeast. I wish to learn more about yeast, but first:

What is the advantage to using yeast nutrient, will i notice a difference in beer flavor, or just in initial lag time? ferment time??


Thanks.

[danno]

I don't use yeast nutrients, but from what I hear, they are mostly unneccesary in beer, because all the nutrients the yeast need are in the wort. You'd need them more for wine, ciders, or mead... I'll try and find a cite...

[paul84043]

I have heard the same thing that Danno said. A yeast nutrient will help you the most in your starter, once you've pitched, the nutrient will only have a minor effect.

[dynomax]

Whats this starter you're referring to?

Starting the yeast in something, and cloning it, or using it in several batches?

I just pitch right into the primary. should i do this differently??

I brew a batch a week

What about liquid yeasts.. are they better?

[YamahaXS]

some people will pitch their yeast into a pint or so of water with some DME or corn sugar dissolved into it. The yeast will of course multiply, so that the starter batch gives your fermentation a head start... your beer will go gang busters much sooner, reducing the chance of bacterial infection.



You can do as you are doing, but if you desire a faster ferment/stronger take off, you might try a starter...

You might also try a specialty yeast, BUt these are considerably more expensive than the little packets of brewers yeast.

[paul84043]

They do say that there are certain styles of beer than cannot be correctly made with dry yeast.
I have used liquid from day one so I can't compare, but the things that I have read about it convinced me that its far superior.

If you're using strictly dry I would definitely do starters, I even do starters with certain batches using liquid yeast and it's already rehydrated and moving..

[b3s]

my first two batches were with dry yeast...now i use tube yeast and the difference is like night and day in terms of flavor and attenuation.

with dry yeast i always re-hydrated with a sugar water solution...get the little yeast cells wet and limbered up.

as was pointed out to me early on, only a very small number of beer yeast strains can be dried, and since with ales the esters produced by the top fermenting yeast is part of the flavor, you can control flavor better with tube yeast strains...plus you have that handy tube for harvesting your own :)

[quantum24]

i always use yeast nutrient for my starters, im not sure what effect it has, but i used it when i started brewing and so i still do. i figure it cant hurt, and its pretty cheap (you use just a pinch in your starter), so why not. maybe someone else with more experience can chime in.

[danno]

ok, I looked for a cite, and this is the best I've found in my 15 minutes of Google research. here is a quote from Al Korzonas, beer book author: "Insufficient nutrition is common only among beers that are made of very large percentages of corn sugar, cane sugar, rice sugar or honey. " Cite (http://www.realbeer.com/spencer/FAQ/stuck-fermentation.html)

In my research, everyone that seems to think nutrients are good for beer is selling them, and I have not found a single beer recipe that actually calls for it. On the other hand, a great deal of wine and mead recipes do, in fact, call for yeast nutrient.

That said, if it works for you, (and it is fairly inexpensive), go for it. I haven't found a single reason NOT to use it. (...and then again, until I bought my last car, I thought power windows and keyless entry were totally useless, lazy options... :D )