Nutritional yeast as a cheap yeast nutrient?

I have been doing some research on yeast nutrients and it seems like nutritional yeast that you can buy at a health food or supplement store is the same thing as some of the better rated yeast nutrients out there. It's just yeast cultured in a nutrient rich environment and then killed off and dried for later use. Has anyone tried using nutritional yeast as a yeast nutrient and if so how did it go? Can anyone think of a reason why this shouldn't work? Nutritional yeast is MUCH cheaper than their yeast nutrient cousins but it's important that it works well since I want to use it for a mead. Thanks.

It works, but an even cheaper option is to use old, washed beer yeast.

Agree.
I dont do it but I may try if I notice there is need for it. Here are some articles from bookmarks:

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/NR...CF/73955/ProblemFermentationandYeastHulls.pdf

http://www.silveradohomebrew.com/pdfs/Yeast_nutrition_article.pdf

I generally don't use (or need) yeast nutrient.

If making a big beer (1.100+), I'll toss an old pack of dried yeast into the boil. Not sure if it helps.

I'll use yeast nutrient on every batch. With modern high-intensity agriculture, it's common for barley and wheat to be deficient in nutrients that are crucial for proper yeast health. I don't have any back-to-back comparisons, but nutrient use may be one of several things that have improved my beer over the years.

I look at it as one small,cheap tweak to my brew day.

I don't know if you ever tasted nutritional yeast, but it's pretty cheesy. It's actually used as a parmesan replacement in vegan pesto. I don't know much flavor it'd impart in such a small amount, though.

I have a jar of bread yeast in my fridge. I have no idea how long it's been there, how far past its expiration date it is now, or how often I would have to make bread to use a whole jar before it expired. But I'm pretty sure that a teaspoon or so into the boil will provide some nutritional insurance for my beer yeast. Although if you're having a cold one or two while you brew (I limit myself to two while I play with fire and microorganisms), the swirled bottle dregs should do much the same thing.

Thanks for your help everyone!