FAQ - Do I need nutrients?

[Grayson_Stewart]

I started writing up some of the FAQ's anyone want to add or change anything on this one concerning yeast nutrients?

Do I need "nutrients"?
The yeast nutrient is necessary because refined sugar has no additional nutrients in it. If you try using just sugar, water & yeast, with no nutrients, you will get very little alcohol. Not much will happen without nutrients present. The alcohol you do make will contain more of the undesirable byproducts, like aldehydes and higher order alcohols. To grow, yeast needs amino acids, minerals, and enzymes, so that it can form the proteins the new cells will need during its "budding" to form daughter cells. It provides the necessary potassium, nitrogen, and phosphates needed (that would in other brewing usually be provided by the malt). If it can't "bud" to form daughter cells, it will still be able to reproduce a couple of times, but it does so using up its own reserves. The resulting cells aren't quite so skilled at the job of making ethanol, and tend to do a couple of extra other things instead.
Nutrient requirements in a wash depend on the wash you are making. Your choices are a sugar wash and a grain (or) molasses wash.
Sugar wash
Sugar does not have the needed nutrients to allow the yeast to proliferate and increase in numbers like they should. Yeast need nutrients to build their cell walls to be healthy. Tony’s site recommends dissolving 5 kg of sugar to 60g to 100g of nutrients in 20L of water, and cool to below 30C before adding hydrated yeast. If yeast nutrients aren’t available, a 6 oz can of tomato paste or tomato sauce is an equally viable substitute.
Grain (or) Molasses Wash
A grain wash does not need added nutrients. Everything the yeast needs is contained in the grain or molasses wash.