Yeast nutrient - using up spare yeast.

[Richie_asg1]

I am used to adding yeast nutrient to my wines like a robot, but not so with beer. Some do some don't and is all a bit of a mystery to me what is actually required for a good fermentation.

I don't really like adding DAP as a chemical so was looking for alternative methods for happy yeast culture.

I had seen a video on how they make Marmite, and that Autolysis is the method they use to extract the nutrients from spent yeast - and isn't that the same nutrients that fresh yeast need to reproduce anyway?
I then watched a video from Wild & Cheap experiment using heated bread yeast solution as a nutrient and the results were better than expected.

So I think I will be saving the yeast from my current brew and some of it will be turned into food for the live yeasts by basically cooking it.
Does anybody have experience of doing this or is DAP necessary in my beer?

 

[Richie_asg1]

Just watched Craft Beer & Brewing small video and they are saying add surplus yeast in at the boil, which seems simpler with less chance of infection.


I think I prefer this method over adding DAP or boiling raisins if they may have been sprayed when growing.

 

[Drunkula]

Does anybody have experience of doing this or is DAP necessary in my beer?

I do both. I've got masses of old yeast from Winebuddy kits that's dead and they give you a perverse amount per kit - can't remember how much but it's like 130 g or something but it does have nutrient. I've also thrown in the little silver packets of yeast you get with kits like Geordie (it's s-33) or put in a spoon of bread yeast. All into the boil of course.

If you're doing all grain then there's really no need for it. The only thing yeast can get a lack of in certain circumstances with all grain is zinc**, and the amount they need is tiny. If you had a multivitamin with zinc you could use a microplane grater and one tablet would be good enough for 20 full size batches - and I do have one of them in my pot of dead yeast but usually forget it.

And being afraid of DAP is like being scared of the tiniest bit of salt on your food or only drinking reverse osmosis water because normal water has chemicals in it like calcium.

** Jamil Zainisheff has said this a few times on the Brewstrong podcast about the brewery he works for.

 

[LeeH]

I believe he owns said brewery. Heretic Brewery Co.