yeast nutrient/pitch rate

[meltroha]

Does using a yeast nutrient in a starter affect the pitch rate?

 

[pounsfos]

in a nutshell, yes

 

[Calder]

I've never used yeast nutrient, and never had a problem.

 

[Brewtah]

in a nutshell, yes

Explain

 

[masskrug]

What is the OG/SG of your wort? Do you even need a nutrient? (I've never used one).

 

[meltroha]

I have never used it before, can't be a bad idea though. I was just wondering, so I don't severely over pitch. I want to give those little guys the best chance.

 

[boydster]

Yeast nutrient, as the name implies, contains nutrients the yeast needs to function properly. Wort is very nutritious, so adding nutrient is rarely needed. If you are making a cider or wine, sure, but for beer, not really.

As far as pitch rate goes... adding nutrient doesn't really change pitch rate as far as I know. The yeast will need to reproduce until reaching a certain size colony, dependent on volume and gravity, and how much nutrient you provide has no bearing on the ideal colony size. Granted, a bigger colony needs more nutrition, but that should already be in the wort. The only nutrients that are not available in abundance in a typical wort are zinc and oxygen. If you aerate well, zinc is the only nutrient typically in short supply in wort (well, O2 still is in short supply with good aeration I guess because at the homebrewing scale we can only do so much to get enough O2 into the wort). A small zinc deficiency is not really going to make or break most fermentations.

I would pitch according to traditional pitch rates, whether I was adding nutrient or not. It's no different than using a Wyeast smack pack, which includes nutrient - you follow standard pitch rate guidelines.

 

[jrgtr42]

I've gotten in the habit of tossing a quarter teaspoon or so into my starters. THe one time I also used it in my main brew, I blew the top a day and a half later. Since then, just in the starter, to give the little buggers a bit more help in getting up to speed. I don't really worry about exact pitch rates, just give it a couple days in starter, then normally I pitch the whole nine yards.
I've tried a couple times with cold-crashing, decanting and pitching the slurry, but I didn't seem to get as good results, for some reason.

 

[meltroha]

Thanks all, I am going to use standard pitch rates, add nutrient, since I bought it already, do my 24 hour shake starters, cold crash for 24 hours, decant and pitch as normal.