Fermentation without nutrients.

[Eruthien]

Hi, I'm very new to brewing so I started basic by making a sugar wash but I didn't use any nutrients because I didn't realise that yeast may produce compounds other than ethanol without nutrients. I read that without nutrients the fermentation becomes stunted and other alcohols and aldehydes are produced. The wash smells very alcoholic and a bit sweet, reminds me a lot of fizzy apple cider and it tastes very alcoholic and has a very weak hint of bitterness. Do you reckon it's safe to drink or should I toss it?? The yeast were very active, lots of foam and it stopped fermenting after 8 days. I used regular bread yeast and boiled tap water.

Thank you in advance.

 

[daveMN]

Looks like you proved that yeast plus sugar equals CO2 and alcohol. It likely tastes like wet bread and hangover. You can probably drink it, but I'd chalk it up to a successful fermentation experiment. For your next batch, more tasty route would be to buy an extract beer kit with brewer's yeast. Good luck!

 

[mongoose33]

Malt (in it's grain form or extract form) provides all the nutrients yeast needs to perform well.

Using bread yeast to ferment works, it just doesn't work well. You need yeast that was isolated in brewing beer, yeast whose performance produces flavors conducive to the type of beer being brewed.

I'm with Dave--you need to get a kit and brew that. Get some good ingredients and you might have something you'd want to drink. What you have? Water the garden with it.

 

[Eruthien]

So you guys don't think fermenting without any nutrients causes any problems?? Does my description of the taste and smell seem normal?

 

[Big Monk]

So you guys don't think fermenting without any nutrients causes any problems?? Does my description of the taste and smell seem normal?

Wort can often be Zinc deficient, which is why a yeast nutrient like the one Wyeast sells comes in handy.

 

[Big Monk]

Malt (in it's grain form or extract form) provides all the nutrients yeast needs to perform well.

I would agree with you that malt CAN supply all the nutrients required for successful fermentation IF those nutrients make it into the fermenter. Zinc and other important nutrients can get bound up in spent grain and kettle trub, meaning that a little additional nutrient at the end of the boil or into the fermenter can help, especially with higher gravity beers.

 

[mongoose33]

I would agree with you that malt CAN supply all the nutrients required for successful fermentation IF those nutrients make it into the fermenter. Zinc and other important nutrients can get bound up in spent grain and kettle trub, meaning that a little additional nutrient at the end of the boil or into the fermenter can help, especially with higher gravity beers.

While no one person's experience is a guarantee of anyone else's, I've been brewing without any yeast nutrient and I'm not having any problems. I certainly see how using a yeast nutrient can't hurt, but it's not an absolute necessity, at least in my experience.

I think rehydration of dry yeast, or making a good yeast starter, are more important.

 

[kh54s10]

So you guys don't think fermenting without any nutrients causes any problems?? Does my description of the taste and smell seem normal?

I would say the taste and smell of what you made is probably normal.

All you really made was alcohol.

Yeast nutrient will do nothing to change the flavor of something that was brewed without any ingredients that would add a good flavor.

Sugar, water and yeast produces ethanol. You got something similar to what they put in gasoline.

 

[passedpawn]

Even prisoners add stuff to their hootch. Try some ketchup packets or a potato or something.

I'm closing this thread. The entire premise of this forum is to make stuff that is as much unlike hootch as possible.