Washed yeast and nutrient

I'm not sure if it's necessary, but when I make a starter out of extract I always add yeast nutrient. Now that I harvest and wash yeast, it seems even more unnecessary because of the dead yeast cells in the washed yeast provide nutrition.

For the sake of giving a situation with a control, if I were pitching my washed yeast into a starter of just sugar and water, would the dead guys be enough on their own to feed the living?

There may be too many variable here to speculate with confidence. How old is the yeast, what was and is health and viability, how many dead cells, what yeast strain, etc?

I always make an offering of nutrient to the yeast god just in case.

Lets just say for this case it's s-05 that I harvested and washed 3 weeks ago from a 1.045 OG brew. The viability when I pitched into the beer I harvested from was about 90%, and the washed yeast has been in the fridge since. I know I should probably throw some nutrient in, but I'm always looking to cut out redundancy.

BTW, this is the OP, I'm at a friends house and forgot to log into my SN

I'm a little confused about the actual question, but will try and give an answer.

Slurry/washed-yeast; I would use about a quarter of the cake for a similar gravity brew (half for 2X gravity).

Most people say 1 week is all can do without a starter.

I've gone a couple of months (with the same 1/4 rate with no problem).

If you are OK with your sanitation, and have kept the yeast in the fridge, I'd say just pitch it.

For anyone quoting Mr. Malty in response to this thread, I do not think their yeast viability is anywhere near right for slurry.

Simply put, the question is do I need yeast nutrient in a starter of sugar and water with washed yeast. The reason I ask the question is I assume there is enough dead yeast cells in the washed yeast to negate the use of nutrient.

No, you can get away without using it.

Have made plenty of starters without nutrient and there has been no noticeable performance issue from the yeast. These days however I prefer to use nutrient.

I would not use sugar personally - wort (extra runnings) or dme for me.

I always use it and I trust Mr Malty.