home-made yeast nutrient?

I am about to start my first batch of mead, and most of what I have read suggests mead really goes better with some kind of yeast nutrient. However, here in Taiwan I have no access to the usual brew shop sold nutrients. Does anyone know of a homemade option? And really, how important/necessary is yeast nutrient for mead?

Here's the ingredients to 800g of yeast nutrient Enovit. Scale the recipe as necessary.

Enovit - 40 grams of diammonium phosphate, 747 grams of ammonium sulphate, 2 grams of thiamine, 1 gram of potassium tartrate, 10 grams of bentonite.** Usage rate for Enovit is 3-6 grams per 5 gallons.* 3 grams is about 1 teaspoon.**

cheers.

Nutrient is fairly necessary, since honey is pretty much just pure sugar and has very few other naturally occurring nutrients anyway. It'll start your brew faster and your yeast will ferment slightly longer.
Have fun!
(dancing banana dancing banana)

Uhh, thanks guys, but where would I find stuff like that other than a brew store? Any nutrient options you can find at a supermarket or what not?

you can order nutrient from any online homebrew store. The smaller sizes would be light, so shipping would be cheaper.

chemical supply companies?

Many pharmacies have Thiamin.

IIRC zinc may used as a yeast nutrient, However, the dosage amount I don't recall.
As far as aquiring it....anywhere you can find vitamins.

EDIT: I did some googling and found this on zinc:

0.1-0.3mg/l and up to 0.5 mg/l being maximum

Ok, I found ammonium diphosphate, but not diammonium phosphate. I have read a lot that DAP works as a stand alone nutrient, but does ADP as well? I want to make sure before I drink anything with ADP in it. I just remember that movie Erin Brockavich where one kind of chromium was harmless to people but then the other kind caused cancer. I really want to make mead, but I am not sure if I want cancer.

You can make mead without nutrient, but it might take longer, fermentation might or might not go on as long, and there is no predicting your FG....There was no yeast nutrient around during medieval times, and they made mead. You could always try it without, and see what happens.

Ok, I found some DAP, which I believe can be used as a stand alone nutrient, right?

Yes, you can use that. That is what yeast nutrient actually is anyway. http://www.eckraus.com/NUT110.html

Glibbidy said:

IIRC zinc may used as a yeast nutrient, However, the dosage amount I don't recall.
As far as aquiring it....anywhere you can find vitamins.

EDIT: I did some googling and found this on zinc:

0.1-0.3mg/l and up to 0.5 mg/l being maximum

Click to expand...

The key to adding zinc is to be careful of the form that it is added in. Simply adding ZnCl2 or ZnSO4 in the appropriate concentrations will not work (unfortunately) since it will be absorbed into the trub. You need to add a biologically abundant form of zinc...a zinc chelate like Zinc citrate or Zinc gluconate.

More details can be found in Bromberg, Susan K, et al. Requirements for Zinc, Manganese, Calcium, and Magnesium in Wort. JASBC, 6/11/97.

mrkristofo said:

Here's the ingredients to 800g of yeast nutrient Enovit. Scale the recipe as necessary.

Enovit - 40 grams of diammonium phosphate, 747 grams of ammonium sulphate, 2 grams of thiamine, 1 gram of potassium tartrate, 10 grams of bentonite.** Usage rate for Enovit is 3-6 grams per 5 gallons.* 3 grams is about 1 teaspoon.**

cheers.

Click to expand...

great article thank you:rockin:


cheers

just quick question most commercial nutrient i saw over net just selling diammonium phosphate as yeast nutrient but in your formula compare to diammonium phosphate, you added massive size of "grams of ammonium sulphate" to be exact 747 gram! compare to 40gram of diammonium phosphate.

can you explain what the benefit of this over those please.

thank you

If you can't find chemical type nutrients how about boiling up some bread yeast hulls or adding fruit, fresh or dried. Either should help a primary go alittle faster.

I saw a couple different YouTube vids that the dude used raisins and or dried figs. Said just smash them up first.

no, i found most of them just wonder whats with ammonium sulphate too much compare to others.
does this part do something specific?
gonna take last part thiamine from drugstore. then i have plenty nutrients for ages hehe.

ok i added Thiamine to the mix and used it on my 2 days old pomegranate Melomel, it was fermenting ok, but when i add it its like added rocket fuel to yeasts!
its so fast working im bit worried knock the cap off lol.

thanks again for wonderful guild m8

cheers

There is a simple yeast nutrient that you can use. Both from your local drug store. B-Complex and Zinc. One tablet of each put into your brew just near the end of the boil.