Brewer's Yeast as nutrition for starter?

[justflow1983]

In reading over the section on yeast nutrition in How to Brew I came across Palmer's recommendation that one add nutrients to the starter wort. Its my first time using a liquid yeast and I didn't pick any nutrients up (LHBS is a 2 hr drive) but in his list of nutrients he lists yeast hulls as one of the standard types of nutrients:

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Nutrients

I was wondering if brewer's yeast from the health food shop (dead Saccharomyces cerevisiae) would be basically the same thing? I was considering getting some since theres a health shop on the street that I work on, and throwing it in with the wort boil to make sure its sanitized and dead.

I'm a noob, this is brew #4, so all opinions welcome...

 

[Revvy]

Yes, berwer's yeast added to the boil is the same as "yeast hulls"

You can really do it with any yeast, even old bread yeast, or those unlabled metallic packets of yeast under some extract cans...even just any beer yeast dropped into the boil. I have a jar of bread machine that was improperly stored improperly stored and mostly dead. I use that in the boil as a nutrient all the time.

 

[Denny]

Yes, berwer's yeast added to the boil is the same as "yeast hulls"

You can really do it with any yeast, even old bread yeast, or those unlabled metallic packets of yeast under some extract cans...even just any beer yeast dropped into the boil. I have a jar of bread machine that was improperly stored improperly stored and mostly dead. I use that in the boil as a nutrient all the time.

Have you ever done side by side tests to be sure it's doing something?

 

[Revvy]

Have you ever done side by side tests to be sure it's doing something?

No, it's just somethig I started using. I've only done a couple of batches where I have added it to the boil.

Though I DID manage to bring my saison down from 1.018 to iirc 1.009 by dropping a tbs or so of hulls in some boiling water and adding that to the primary. I wasn't sure it would work, but I had read that treatise on using yeast hulls in stuck fermentations in wine and thought what the heck.

Then after going back and reading about yeast hulls in palmer and other places, I've been adding it to the last 15 minutes of the boil.

No comparasons yet though.

I know you do a lot of high grav brewing, have you used them?

 

[Denny]

Yeah, and truthfully I didn't think they did anything. I've started using Wyeast yeast nutrient in the kettle lately and that has made a big difference for me.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Per Revvy's suggestion in a thread a while back, I have started to use brewer's yeast (yeast hulls) along with some yeast nutrient/energizer in all of my starters and brews, I can't comment on whether or not there is a noticable fermentation difference, since every fermentation has gotten better with experience, but the way I see it, it can't hurt, and a big a$$ canister of brewer's yeast can be purchased for a few dollars, and will definitely last for a real long time.

FWIW, the yeast nutrient/energizer though did make a difference on its own before I began using the brewer's yeast.