Fermaid for beer fermentation?

[benchwrmr22]

I placed an order online and got some Fermaid O for yeast nutrient, however, all of the information I have found has been for using it in big beers, meads, and wines. Is there any benefit to using this in regular (4%-7% ABV) beer fermentation? I was planning on using maybe a 1/2 dosage on a brew coming up.

If there isn't a use for it in regular brewing it's no big loss. I like to do a mead every once in a while so I could just use it for that.

 

[daksin]

Beer wort has pretty much all of the nutrients yeast need to reproduce and ferment properly, so we typically don't use it. Bigger beers are much more stressful environments (osmotic pressure from all that sugar at the start, and then lots of alcohol and low pH at the end) so some nutrient may help keep the yeast healthy and happy to finish up properly.

Wine and mead must contain almost no free nitrogen and lack most nutrients needed for yeast growth, so a staggered nutrient addition is really necessary for the best results.

 

[benchwrmr22]

So I understand that it's not necessary but would it provide any benefit over not using it? I'm thinking it would probably help the yeast finish cleaner since they'll have nutrients that they wouldn't otherwise have. Full disclosure, I'm not a biologist

 

[daksin]

You won't see much benefit, but it won't hurt anything if you want to use it. The yeast will have plenty of nutrients without it as long as you treat them nice (enough cells, temperature, aeration).

 

[AerationStation]

You won't see much benefit, but it won't hurt anything if you want to use it. The yeast will have plenty of nutrients without it as long as you treat them nice (enough cells, temperature, aeration).

+1

The FAN and other nutrients in the wort will give the yeast pretty much everything they need for a good healthy fermentation. Really the thing I use nutrient for is to try and boost that zinc level up a little bit, but then again there's a million ways to get the minute amounts of Zn that the yeast need in there

 

[dcbc]

AerationStation beat me to it. It's mostly about Zinc. If you are not using 100% RO water on a beer that is not an unusually harsh environment alcohol-wise, your municipal water probably has enough Zn in it.

As an aside though, what are some other ways to get Zinc into the beer? Zinc tablets I assume? Is there a brand you could recommend that doesn't have any extra cornstarch, et al. in it?

 

[AerationStation]

AerationStation beat me to it. It's mostly about Zinc. If you are not using 100% RO water on a beer that is not an unusually harsh environment alcohol-wise, your municipal water probably has enough Zn in it.

As an aside though, what are some other ways to get Zinc into the beer? Zinc tablets I assume? Is there a brand you could recommend that doesn't have any extra cornstarch, et al. in it?

Yea, usually you don't have to worry about getting Zn if your using your tap water. Really the con'c that the yeast need is minimal.

I've heard zinc tablets are an OK way to go, although I've personally never used them ( I usually just use some yeast nutrient in my starters).

Another way of adding Zn that I used to do when brewing partial boils is to toss a couple of pennies in to the boil kettle (make sure they are clean and decently sanitary. The boil should sterilize them but I never just chuck stuff in to a brew haha).

Not only does it cut down on some of the foaming action (a definite plus when on the stovetop), but modern pennies contain way more zinc than copper in them. A 60 min boil will be plenty to get enough Zn in to solution for the yeast.

Now that being said, I'm not sure about some of the other metals you might be getting in to solution and the effects they might have. Personally it worked pretty well for me, but I'd love to hear some more about it.

 

[dcbc]

That's an interesting idea assuming the metal from the core will leach into solution during a 90 min. boil. From what I understand, a modern (post 1982) penny is 99.2% Zn and 0.8% copper in its core with the outside being copper.

I have read that the range for zinc that is good for the yeast is in the 0.15 to 0.2 mg/liter. I am thinking of picking up some of those Zinc supplements that are 15 mg. If I add half a tablet for a 10 gallon batch, that's in the right range.