Starter Yeast Nutrient

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shot0rum247

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Im using a food grade yeast nutrient for a starter because I wanna have it ready to go and feisty in a day or two. With keeping everything sterile in mind, do I add a teaspoon of this stuff to a liter after it cools or before it gets to pitching temp. I guess I'm really asking whether or not the heat of killing any bacteria will also kill the yeast nutrient. What do you guys do with the stuff?
 
Im using a food grade yeast nutrient for a starter because I wanna have it ready to go and feisty in a day or two. With keeping everything sterile in mind, do I add a teaspoon of this stuff to a liter after it cools or before it gets to pitching temp. I guess I'm really asking whether or not the heat of killing any bacteria will also kill the yeast nutrient. What do you guys do with the stuff?

Some say at the end of the boil and others say just put it in after you cool it but I guess it depends on if it is sterile or not and that would depend on the source. If you are unsure I would not put it in cooled wort. It is better to be safe than sorry. The only yeast nutriants I would trust to put directly in the wort after cooling would be the ones that you can order from White Labs and Wyeast. If you are making a starter using canned wort then I think there are plenty of nutriants in the wort itself without adding a nutriant.

Look Here

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=5986

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_FAQ.html#Nutrients Section
 
I've never used yeast nutrient with my starters. I've just oxygenated with O2 and been just fine for propagating a regular Wyeast packet big enough for 10 gallon batches. Your starters shouldn't really need nutrient because they shouldn't be much bigger than 1.040 in gravity. Nutrient might be beneficial for a high gravity brew though.
 
Sounds good, Thanks all. How much nutrient should I put in a 5 gallon brew? I was told 1 teaspoon for my one liter starter.

I believe that Wyeast says for their nutrient use 1/2 to 1 tsp for 5 gal. I rarely use the nutrient in my batches, but I do in my yeast starters. Since I make my starters in the kitchen I use a normal tsp and put about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of nutrient in my starter depending on the size of the starter (either 1L, 2L, or 1 gal)
 
Which nutrient are you all using?


The Yeast culturing article at the Maltose Falcons site suggests:

Also rapidly growing yeast such as those in starters have a higher than normal nitrogen requirement. Thus starter worts should be supplemented with yeast nutrients so that nitrogen is not limiting.

Typically for my 5 G beer batches in lieu of nutrient I throw a couple packs of way out of date dry yeast in the boil which ensures the yeast is dead and the new yeast I pitch after cooling has the bodies of the dead yeast to pick up nutrients from. Think this would be as effective as nutrients? I was under the impression that most nutrients contained some dead yeast anyway, but I may be wrong.
 
I use Wyeast nutrient in both my starter and my boil. I let boil the last 15min left in the boil, I would recommend rehydrate it first with a tiny amount of wort.
 
Typically for my 5 G beer batches in lieu of nutrient I throw a couple packs of way out of date dry yeast in the boil which ensures the yeast is dead and the new yeast I pitch after cooling has the bodies of the dead yeast to pick up nutrients from.

I do the same, but I use normal, baker's yeast.
 

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