What do people here think about putting Fermax/yeast nutrient in wort as a customary procedure? I put it in a US-05 and DME starter, and it blew up very fast.
Fermax as Standard Procedure?
- Thread starter Clint Yeastwood
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
NSMikeD
Well-Known Member
Thats like putting instant coffee in the microwave. I believe modern yeasts have needed nutrients to get started as do most malt. I'm not sure but I believe Fermax is used for certain brews that are inherently low on nutrients. I don't recall which ones. I know I haven't touched my bottle of the stuff in years.
edit note: I looked it up to refresh my memory, most beer made with malted barley will have all the nutrients you need. Beers over 8% ABV could use nutrients to help the yeast. Beers with high adjuncts and nutrient void sugar are also a candidate
edit note: I looked it up to refresh my memory, most beer made with malted barley will have all the nutrients you need. Beers over 8% ABV could use nutrients to help the yeast. Beers with high adjuncts and nutrient void sugar are also a candidate
Last edited:
OP
OP
People gave me the impression one packet of dry yeast was fine for 5 gallons, but then I saw people saying dry yeast needs a starter. I underpitched a couple of beers, so I guess now I want to be super careful in the future. Anything that makes yeast happy, I want.
NSMikeD
Well-Known Member
05 tends to not to sit of shelves long and is a pretty vibrant yeast. You can always rehydrate it. I read that rehydration improves the viability of the yeast cells as opposed to dumping on top wort.
if you really want to take it to the next level, there are calculators you can use in most brewing software - You can take the published number of cells of a packet, and then plug in the age of the packet and that should give you the viable cell count which you can check against the software recommendation. I'd have to look int up, but I recall there also is some rules of thumb to calculate rehydrated yeast cell count. I brew 2.5 gals so I don't worry too much about the count as I over pitch and often with also rehydrate. But for 5 gals, I would rehydrate as a matter of course.
OP
OP
I brewed a stout with 05 recently. Just dumped one packet in, dry. The FG was not quite as low as expected, but the beer is great and doesn't taste sweet. I have a beer I brewed with Abbaye, though, and it got stuck at 1.020, which is at least .005 higher than it should be. I dumped some 05 in it and got down to 1.019 after about a week. I just put a 1-liter starter in it along with some Fermax. Whatever happens, it will go in a keg in a week.
NSMikeD
Well-Known Member
I found a good article on Morebeer (I am sure there are threads onto subject here as well). So MoreBeer recommends always rehydrating dry yeast to reduce the chances of off flavors from under pitching. The rehydration softens the cells and makes them more able to absorb the wort nutrients. The sugars in the wort inhibit that absorption so rehydrating yeast negates that problem.
According to Fermantis, dehydrating yeast brings it back to its origin bio mass at packaging (70-95%) which, in their opinion, makes rehydrated dry years more fresh than liquid yeast
According to Fermantis, dehydrating yeast brings it back to its origin bio mass at packaging (70-95%) which, in their opinion, makes rehydrated dry years more fresh than liquid yeast
OP
OP
It definitely works for pizza.
Good question. I thought Fermax was for wine making and I’ve only ever used it for wine or mead. I have Wyeast yeast nutrient that I always use for beer. I understand yeast likes dead yeast as nutrient too. So if you have old expired packs of yeast you aren’t going to use you can throw some in at the end of the boil as nutrient too.
OP
OP
I blew foam all over the lid of my Braumeister today, so I should have taken my own advice. That alarm is really quiet. So German. If you don't hear it, you should have been listening harder.
