Used Wyeast Nutrient Blend. Used only about 20x more than I should have.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

loafimus

Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2012
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Location
Rochester
I goofed. This weekend I attempted my first big brew, a Tripel IPA with a OG of 1.084. I used a 1L starter of 3522 Belgian Ardennes and wanted to make sure I could ferment through and decided on trying Wyeast's nutrient blend.

When reading the instructions on the vial, I misread the usage instructions and thought the 42.5g amount was the usage and missed the 2.2g part. I did think it was a little strange adding the whole vial to a 5 gallon batch, but I did it anyways. Oops. So needless to say, I threw about 20 times more nutrients in my wort that needed. I had read that the 3522 was a violent fermenter, but this was just nuts. It blew the lid off my fermenter within 6 hours and has been going since. I've blown off a little over a gallon so far. It seems like the blowoff has slowed down quite a bit now though.

So besides ending up with like 3 1/2 gallons of beer instead of 5 and witnessing something that resembled the old baking soda volcanoes of grade school, will my beer be okay? I was planning on ageing it a little while and am going to be disheartened if it tastes like garbage after waiting so long. Though I guess there's not much else I can do.
 
Ugh, not the answer I was hoping for. I've emailed wyeast to see what they say. I'll let you know what I find out. I'm pretty bummed about this one.
 
Why would he toss it, he added what amounts to a few multivitamins to five gallons of beer. I'm confused.
 
I'd imagine that it's probably pretty safe, but worth talking to Wyeast about it.

Also, I'd save every bit of the blowoff and yeast cake that I could. Somehow I'd imagine you'd get a good number of brews off of those, as they'll be in primo condition (thick cell walls, capable of multiple generations in each brew)
 
Okay, heard back from Wyeast. Sounds encouraging, may not be a lost batch. What it will taste like is anyone's guess though.

From Wyeast:

"The nutrient diluted at that level should not pose any health risks (I would not drink all 5 gallons in one day though). The yeast is going to use a lot of the nutrients you added, even at the high levels. I would maybe take care to leave behind the yeast as it may actually contain high levels of zinc… though you would need to drink about 4 liters per days to hit the recommended level of a zinc supplement."
 
It should be safe, but there might be a "off taste" to it. Have you smelled that stuff at the 1/2 tsp dilution? It reminds me of ammonia.

Hopefully the yeast used up most of what you added, like wyeast said. Ultimately, they're the authority on this subject.
 
Figured I'd update this. It's been bottled for quite a while now, chilled on for a couple days and cracked one open. Unfortunately it was a drain pour. It tastes like Flinstone vitamins. Lesson learned. Don't drink so much on brew day that you can't read instructions.
 
are you gonna let it age for a little while to see if it gets better? no need to dump. belgians like to age.
 
Back
Top