Yeast into kettle as nutrient

[bootleg]

I have heard of brewers pitching a small amount of yeast into the kettle as a nutrient for fermentation.
Would / could / is this beneficial for a fast healthy fermentation?
Any thoughts or theroies........?

[J.M.Martin]

Check out stupid things every brewer should know on the top of the home page of probrewer I wrote a section about this.

jamie

[Moonlight]

I have heard this multiple places and used it from time to time. Bits of boiled yeast seem to provide reasonable food for growing more bits of yeast. The folks that sell yeast nutrient may prefer you use their product. Best for you would be to try a few generations with it, and see how performance changes. If your yeast is getting perfect nutrition already, it wound't likely help. If your yeast is somewhat malnourished, or if you need extra growth for a batch, this could help.

[gpitman]

My understanding is that All-Grain batches do not need additional nutrients. If you are using 50% or more extract, then you should use yeast nutrients.

[zachjenny]

I tried this once after reading in ole' daclerks brewing textbook. I found that it added extra bitterness(harsh). I think it was because of the hop resins caught up in the yeast from the previous beer. You know how yeast tastes after you've fermented a beer with a moderate amount of hops, much more bitter than when its fresh from the labs. In my opinion, a good nutrient like Yeastex should be more than sufficient, and in all reality pretty cheap when you cost it out per batch.

[jfulton]

Most yeast nutrients are dried yeast highly fortified with zinc, which is usually below adequate even in all grain mashes (some German breweries have zinc plated rakes in their lauter tuns). You would need to add much less nutrient to the have the same fortifying effect as adding more yeast slurry. I personally don't like the idea of boiling yeast in my wort :eek:, especially at rates as high as some people have recommended here. Just doesn't sound smooth! :D I can hadle 1 gram per HL, there's no way in hell I'm going to add nearly a liter of yeast slurry to my 8 BBL batch of boiling wort.

[MJMurphy]

There was some back and forth about this at a yeast workshop at the MBAA/ASBC conference that included some folks who had spent decades in the brewing industry, mostly on the yeast and QA/QC side. The general sense seemed to be that the nutrient additives were really Zinc delivery systems. An all-grain mash should have nearly all the nutrients the yeast may need in the fermenter, if a little low on the Zinc. It was also suggested that the yeast material itself may merely drop out as trub and not contribute all that much, but there wasn't a large body of experience amongst the participants.

However, YeastEx looks like it also provides additional nitrogen for the purpose of bulking up low-FAN providing mashes. I can see how that may be of an additional benefit if you are brewing with adjuncts (e.x. sugar in Belgians) that may lower the FAN in the wort or high-gravity brews where the yeast can use every hand it can get.

An additional note. In that same workshop they mentioned that Zinc has a high propensity to drop out in the kettle and whirlpool by binding with trub when added to the kettle. The closer you can add it to the wort transfer, it was suggested, the better. If there were some sterile solution, perhaps you could even add it directly in the transfer to the fermenter.

[Roger Greene]

All I would say is fatty acids! All that I have read leads towards enough O2 and zinc. Of course I guess that any nutrients found in yeast could be used by yeast.

[njbrewer08530]

from past experience, yeastex is far superior to just zinc. viability on subsequent generations falls much quicker using only zinc. if you are going to use your yeast for more than five generations, yeastex is the way to go. along with proper O2, which should be done no matter what yeast nutrient you choose.