Yeast Nutrients

[Hilltop]

Can someone tell me exactly what is in brew shop yeast nutrients? I never have trouble with grain, but recently I had a sugar wash stall. Those brew shop yeast nutrients fired it back up. Is this brew shop stuff natural or manmade chemicals? I've used Dap before and fertilizer just wondering what this stuff is and how it's made. I see most of it is white but recently while surfing the web I saw some reddish colored yeast nutrient. I'm not a fan of tomato paste and do like the simplicity of adding these yeast nutrients but like to know what I'm using and the bags never contain any info other than yeast nutrient add this much! lol!

[Hilltop]

Admin I was dealing with a sugar wash is why I posted it here, if you feel this should be in the yeast section please move it with my apologies.

[Shine0n]

Fermaid o is organic (I use)
fermaid k isn't (I don't use)
Boiling bread yeast with a good pinch of Epsom salt will make a great nutrient, let me clarify...1 lbs of yeast, 1 quart h20, 1 tsp Epsom salt

Boil water with es, once at a boil add yeast and cut down the heat to a simmer. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes or boil down to reduce water volume.

Put in a mason jar and refrigerate.

Note☆ it's easier to measure if reduced to a paste.

[Hilltop]

Fermaid o is organic (I use)
fermaid k isn't (I don't use)
Boiling bread yeast with a good pinch of Epsom salt will make a great nutrient, let me clarify...1 lbs of yeast, 1 quart h20, 1 tsp Epsom salt

Boil water with es, once at a boil add yeast and cut down the heat to a simmer. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes or boil down to reduce water volume.

Put in a mason jar and refrigerate.

Note☆ it's easier to measure if reduced to a paste.

1lb? Doesn't seem cost effective or time saving to me as the nutrients are cheap. That's a lot of bread yeast. I would think one could obtain the nutrients themselves cheaper but again what's in them, as at least bread yeast is natural.

I've looked around the site at various nutrients and nutrient recipes, and many of these cost more to make than the nutrients can be bought at the brew shop for, so I assume it's the ingredients in the brew shop yeast nutrients that some folks don't like that entices them to make their own nutrients. Would that be a correct assumption?

[shadylane]

Sam's Club sells 2 pounds of yeast for $5

[jonnys_spirit]

You’ll end up with plenty yeast trub slurry after a ferment clears. Boil that shti and use as nutrient.

-j

[Hilltop]

Mostly I do grains and use zero nutrients, but boiled yeast by its self is just part of a nutrient recipe. On a sugar wash we are gonna need other things like magnesium , calcium etc, so the 5 bucks is going up.

[shadylane]

1. Buy a bag of store bought yeast nutrient
2. Make my own

If I buy something, at best, I'll learn how to use it.
If I make it, I'll learn much more.

On a side note
I can make yeast nutrients with local ingredients, cheaper than I can order it.

[kiwi Bruce]

Can someone tell me exactly what is in brew shop yeast nutrients?

Yes... it's Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and food grade Urea.
It provides phosphate and nitrogen to the wash for the yeast to stimulate rapid, strong growth.
If you wanted to make it, for use in the hobby, you could use the urea sold in garden centers. However it's cheap enough from the HB stores...why bother?

[Shine0n]

Sam's Club sells 2 pounds of yeast for $5

Fermaid o is 15 bucks for a very few oz. I use this in my meads/melomel
Bread yeast at this price is great nutrients and I know what is in it

[zapata]

Urea is linked to ethyl carbonate formation (like for real, regardless of ones belief in what happens to EC during distillation or if you care to worry about it).
Excess of ammonia based nitrogen is linked to various problems from poisonous blue distillate to simple ph problems.
Dead yeast is free after your first ferment and does not have the problems of urea or ammonia. However I believe both urea and ammonia salts are fine at the correct dosage, but I dont personally think they are worth the cost or the risk.

[Boda Getta]

shadylane

Please share your recipe for homemade yeast nutrients with us.

BG

[Reverend Newer]

Wheat germ is the best nutrient I've ever used for a sugar wash and using a bunch rather than a pinch of magnesium sulfate was never an issue in the wash, but with magnesium, calcium should always be present. Blow the krausen out barrel in rite conditions.

I cant imagine what would happen if adding some B vitamins and maybe some organic nitrogen along with the prepared wheat germ (crock potted/ boil't)

Folks overlook baby'n your yeast imo.... yeast bomb/starter with ideal pH'd/nuted starter water, ideal temps for yeast variety. No shocking, they are fragile as a poppy seedlings.

[Shine0n]

never handled poppy seeds myself!

1lb bread yeast
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Epsom salt
1 quart of water

Boil and reduce to a paste, one tsp per 5 gal of wash. Haven't had one stall since using this.

Not all washes need nutes but for sugars washes it's not failed me.

[Hilltop]

never handled poppy seeds myself!

1lb bread yeast
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Epsom salt
1 quart of water

Boil and reduce to a paste, one tsp per 5 gal of wash. Haven't had one stall since using this.

Not all washes need nutes but for sugars washes it's not failed me.

Now this recipe looks more cost effective to make thanks.

[shadylane]

shadylane

Please share your recipe for homemade yeast nutrients with us.

BG

For a 10 gallon ferment

Bring a quart of water to boil, turn the burner to low and add a 1/4 cup bakers yeast.
Prepare for drama when it trys to boil over. When it quits trying to make a mess, it's cooked long enough. 5-10 minutes

Add a pinch of epsom salts and aprox 1-2 tsp (3 - 6 gr) DAP
Throw in a couple one a day vitamins if you got them.
Adding a handful of crushed oyster shell with ground coral to the fermenter will supply minerals and nutrients
And help with pH control

Or plan B
Boil a 1/4 cup yeast and at least a cup of cereal.
The oyster shell is still beneficial

[Hallorann]

TIL: Fermaid O is not only a source of organic (carbon-based) nitrogen, but is actually a certified organic product per OMRI:
http://www.scottlab.com/product-106.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow ... it's 2x the organic!

That said, it doesn't appear that Fermaid O has the vitamin B complex that Fermaid K does, nor the magnesium salts. I'm not sure why Scott/Lallemand doesn't make a Fermaid K with carbon-based nitrogen sources but all the other goodies
http://www.scottlab.com/uploads/documen ... andout.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Reverend Newer]

I have been really considering using worm castings in my in sugar washes for more nitrogen and plenty of other nutrients. It does wonders for the towering tomato plants. Be cheap shine nutrients for someone with a worm compost bin feeding the worms only organic materials.

Commercial castings are a dollar per pound or make your own for free, fully organic. It's not called black gold for nothing.

Been using food grade potassium hydroxide for the pH control (after acidic sugar invert or when Uncle Jesse gets too sour) yeasts seem to be loving that potassium boost. Goose Eye, them ole boys prolly used regular wood ashes I 'spect?

Oyster shells with coral calcium rounded out with the crock-potted wheat germ. (saw a 50# sack of wheat germ fer $50) I'd rather have that than a 50# sack of DAP shit any day.... to the DAP Cave Robin!

Can always add some cooked, crimped corn for nutrients, corn has a bunch of magnesium among other nutrients. $7 for 50# with farmers exemption if you have chickens.

I use much more magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) than I've ever seen anyone here suggest, don't be afraid to double or triple the amounts of MgSO4 7H2O that ya been using.

To each their own, you'll notice when yer doing it rite. Ya can't really add a bunch of Epsom salts if you NEGLECT the rest of the nutrients, they work together in harmony to produce the best batch of likker you can get from sugar washes.

Ya can't ever go wrong with Lallemand Superstart yeast for sugar washes, pre-start the yeast to use less... helping to preserve your investment in one of the best sugar-swallow'n yeasties around imo.


ShineOn, I said "poppy seedlings" if you try to transplant a poppy seedling, it is quite the endeavor, they are super fragile and this is how I view yeast. People are killing untold numbers of yeast cells by not realize'n their delicate nature or just not caring.

In working with plants, many folks over-plant seeds so they can pick the strongest sprouts (seedlings) to plant in their gardens, this doesn't happen with yeast, they must be babied from the start to the finish and more so when using bakers yeast. It's the reason why yeast starters and yeast bombs work so well.

[SherrodBrown]

I am a bit new to sugarwashes..The distill tastes and smell wet socks. Should it?

Then If one could rank the impact which would do most harm to smell and taste

turbo yeast, congenes or does sugarwash generally taste different or worse than grain mash?

[still_stirrin]

I am a bit new to sugarwashes..The distill tastes and smell wet socks. Should it?

Mine don’t. But I do a strip + spirit protocol. I strip using a potstill head and then for the spirit run, I use my reflux column. I typically push the distillate up to azeo for a sugar wash. And so, the product is usually very clean with very little flavor at all. Certainly, it doesn’t smell and taste like “wet socks”.

Then If one could rank the impact which would do most harm to smell and taste: turbo yeast, congenes, or does sugarwash generally taste different, or worse than grain mash?

Well, first off...a sugar wash definitely will taste different than a grain mash. It will also taste different than a wine or honey must. A sugar wash will often taste subtly sweet, especially in the middle hearts. And the late heads and early hearts can sometimes have a “sharp” bite. It isn’t described as “bitter”, but sometimes as “hot” or “warm”, or even “metalic”. Again, I don’t associate that character to “wet socks”.

I would sooner think that you’re getting some sulfur carryover, possibly introduced with the yeast nutrients you used or even possibly from a Turbo yeast. If you don’t have enough exposure to copper in the vapor path and you had excessive sulfur in the ferment, it might create the descriptors you’ve noticed. Sulfur in the product will tend to be “stinky”.

So, the sugar washes, if properly prepared and managed should not produce excessive congeners which might be objectionable. Don’t try to push the opening gravity too high either as that can stress yeast and produce off flavor byproducts, ketones, and fusel alcohols.
ss

[kiwi Bruce]

I am a bit new to sugarwashes..The distill tastes and smell wet socks. Should it?
No...if you "pushed it" way past 8-10% abv it should still smell and taste OK...turbo yeast has only every made mine bitter...wet socks is something you'd expect to find in the tails of an AG
Then If one could rank the impact which would do most harm to smell and taste
turbo yeast, congenes or does sugarwash generally taste different or worse than grain mash?
every sugar wash I've ever made tasted neutral, maybe a little sour...but a truly "off" taste and smell I can only think could be a wild yeast or bacteria got in the wash...
you can remove this by doing what the vodka distillers do and that is to "polish" it by running it through activated charcoal...this will depend on how much you have to deal with, if it's more than a gallon pack a column with a 1/2lb and slowly drip it through, expect to lose 4 fluid oz to the charcoal, if it's less...add a heaped tablespoon full to the spirit, shake it up and let it sit over night, expect to lose 1/2 fluid oz to the charcoal...repeat this until this taste has gone.
it works wonders cleaning up "off" tastes and smells

Hope this helps...Kiwi

[Stew8]

A table spoon of marmite in a 23l /6 us gal. tub works in my sugar washes. There are some copies/own brands around that are not as pricey as marmite. It’s made from brewer yeast and is delicious on toast. You either love it or hate it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmite

Thanks for the recipes detailed above...I’m going to give some a whirl
Collecting trub sounds like a no brainer

[shadylane]

I haven't tried marmite for a yeast nutrient yet, but I've used vegemite and it works.
Vegemite is not only addicting. It takes a lot of beer to wash down vegemite and crackers

[googe]

kale is the best nutrient.

[Bushman]

kale is the best nutrient.

Googe I read your thread a few years ago, will need to give this a go!

[shadylane]

kale is the best nutrient.

Haven't tried kale yet, but I will.
On a side note, A while back I used dried horse turds for nutrients and the yeast liked it.
The recipe also cut down on my brother in law mooching shine

[Saltbush Bill]

Kale wash is good shit ..especially as a base for gins, wins my vote every time

[Yummyrum]

On a side note, A while back I used dried horse turds for nutrients and the yeast liked it.
The recipe also cut down on my brother in law mooching shine

Yet to try Kale .
Wheat bran ,epsom salts and treacle is my sugar wash fav at the moment . No vitamins , no shells , no DAP .

[zed255]

I've had good success with wheat germ and / or wheat bran, boiled yeast harvested from prior ferment, tomato paste and a pinch of epsom salts as my 'go-to' yeast nutrient coctail. I do like to throw in some crushed shells as some insurance but have done without just fine too.

[Budapest8485]

never handled poppy seeds myself!

1lb bread yeast
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Epsom salt
1 quart of water

Boil and reduce to a paste, one tsp per 5 gal of wash. Haven't had one stall since using this.

Not all washes need nutes but for sugars washes it's not failed me.

I'm going to start a sugar wash soon...hoping to be distilling in a week or two.

This looks very simple. Costco sells a large bag of yeast for like $4... I'll make up a jar of this and keep it in the fridge.

So you're telling me, if I take the bottom off my fast-ferment conical fermenter and boil it, that's good nutrient? I know there are dead bodies in there, but I also assumed there's plenty of yeast poop and other stuff.