Yeast Nutrient

Hi Everyone -

I brewed this porter last week

http://quantumfish.com/2010/04/22/great-lakes-edmund-fitzgerald-porter-clone/

In the recipe it says I have to add yeast nutrient. I forgot to add it. It has been in the primary fermentor for a week now. Do I need to add this? Can I add when I move to secondary?

Yeast nutrient is more of a process thing than a recipe thing. If you don't use it normally, there is no reason to use it now. Moreover, there are lots of different yeast nutrients.

I tend to use fermaid k in my starters (used servomyces before I started making mead and always had fermaid k on hand) and nowhere else.

typically you don't need yeast nutrient in beer. but it doesn't hurt. as remilard said at this point there is no point in adding it the yeast are done doing their thing.

Thanks for reading! I really hope that write up was helpful. I'm still pretty new at this myself, but out of the half dozen or so recipes I've brewed, this is the only one where I've used a yeast nutrient. I've always questioned the original recipe for whether this is really a necessary addition. I think this was also the first batch where I really learned that no matter how badly you think you screwed something up, it's probably going to turn out perfectly delicious and drinkable in the end.

My understanding of yeast nutrient is that it adds nutrients that aren't already in your wort that are needed to make yeast healthy. If your wort is composed of a high percentage of refined sugars which are more difficult for yeast to initially process, then a supplemental nutrient could be beneficial. This is also why mead recipes seem to call for their addition.

So, +1 what's already been said - it's probably not necessary, but it doesn't hurt. If you're pitching a big, healthy yeast starter as opposed to a dry packet of yeast, it's probably even less necessary. And if you're already at the secondary phase, your yeast is already conditioned to work in the current wort environment and has gone through enough of its life cycle for a nutrient addition to not have a significant positive impact on the fermentation.