Yeast Nutrient

[Woolsocks]

Does anyone know where to find out what nutrients are in the various formulations of yeast nutrient? I've been blindly using Kerry yeastex 82, but adding unknown nutrients to my wort seems sort of stupid. I'd much rather know what I'm adding.

[kylesmi]

Hey Woolsocks.. I just got some yeastex 82. I have been using Servomices from whitelabs but wanted to save a little cash. The problem is that there are no instructions(dosing rate, time added to kettle etc.) I have tried to contact Kerry through there website with no luck. Can you provide this info for me?

Thanks

Kyle

[JoeV]

My guess it that it probably a "proprieteary secret" otherwise you would just buy pharmaceutical or FCC grade chemicals for pennys on the dollar and make your own "yeast nutrient". You want to use top grade chemicals, besides the obvious that it is going to be for human consumption, I have heard anecdotedly that the yeast accumulate the heavy metals found in lower grades of chemicals and eventually poison themselves.

It isn't such a big secret what yeast need to grow. Most yeast nutrients are Organic (dead yeast) or inorganic (diammonium phosphate). Or a combination of the two. I use diammonium phosphate, zinc sulfate, and dead yeast for propogation ONLY and "dead yeast" only in the early propogation steps.

DAP 1g/liter
ZnSO4 .1-.3 mg/liter
Autolysed yeast 1/2 teaspoon per gallon

If you guys score the "secret" recipe please let me know I would be interested to see what it actually is.

Regards,
Joe

[pennbrew2]

A well-made, all-malt wort should provide ample nutrients for the yeast. With one exception: zinc.

Reading between the lines of their literature, it appears Servomyces is made by putting some yeast in a saturated solution of Zinc Sulfate and then drying it. Presumably so the brewer can say with a straight face that they're only adding yeast. If you don't need this little fiction for ingredient labeling or "Reinheitsgebot" reasons, it's far cheaper to buy and use Zinc Sulfate. Add at the end of the boil to give about .5 ppm zinc. I believe the most common and cheapest form is zinc sulfate heptahydrate, so don't forget the 7 H2O molecules when calculating your usage rate.

---Guy

[Woolsocks]

Here's a link to Kerry's product sheet with usage instructions:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=re...9dqChsPmU2OIzw

[Graydon]

For many years I have been searching for an equation used by German brewer to add live yeast to their kettles instead of using yeast nutrient. Does anyone know the number of cells per barrel to add to a kettle as nutrient? I have used zinc in the past but would love to know the correct amout of yeast to add to the boil.

Thanks for the help

graydon

[Rob Creighton]

I have been using a 'mojo necklace' of zinc plated and copper fittings for decades which hangs in my brewkettle.

[edm1077]

Does anyone know the major difference between yeastex82 and yeastex61?

[JoeV]

I have heard of using copper fittings in the kettle but never Galvanized zinc fittings. I think I will stick to food grade zinc sulfate. Who knows whats in galvanized zinc coatings?

[Brancid]

We just got a pale of yeastex 82 by mistake in our last BSG shipment. I figure we'll go ahead and try it out. I've checked the spec sheet from Kerry and they want us to rehydrate it before the kettle. Does everyone do this? Do you think we can get away w/ just popping it in the kettle?

[Jephro]

I have used it in the past, we always just added to the kettle with the 10-20 min hops. Seemed to work just fine, but w/o a control who really knows. I use White Labs Servo now.