Urea or Nothing?

[raindogxx]

Hi everyone,

First off, thanks to all of the great contributors on this forum. There is truly a great wealth of knowledge and experience captured on this board and it has helped me many times already. Thanks.

Last night I inoculated my first batch of mead . I've been procrastinating for a while now but finally got everything together, made my starter and got the fermentation started. After reading a bit more last night it became clear that my yeast nutrient source was less than ideal as it contains urea. Also, I'd like to follow a staggered nutrient addition but don't want to risk ruining the batch.

So the question is should I wait for a few days to receive my DAP from Austin Home Brew or continue with a staggered nutrient addition now and add the urea containing nutrient?


Jon

 

[beninan]

did you pee in it?

 

[raindogxx]

I was trying to avoid imparting a salty flavor.

 

[beninan]

I'm no expert about wine nutrients. I just thought about making a silly comment about "urea" and "pee", because you didn't specify what it was for yeast nutrient, so for all I know, it could be pee.

I have some yeast nutrient that I bought from my LHBS. It has no information on it, other than "Yeast Nutrient". So maybe mine has urea in it as well, but I haven't noticed any salty flavors with it.

 

[oldmate]

If you're looking for a quick solution you can always buy some bakers yeast from the supermarket and then boil or microwave them and add it as your nutrient.

 

[raindogxx]

I'm no expert about wine nutrients. I just thought about making a silly comment about "urea" and "pee", because you didn't specify what it was for yeast nutrient, so for all I know, it could be pee.

I have some yeast nutrient that I bought from my LHBS. It has no information on it, other than "Yeast Nutrient". So maybe mine has urea in it as well, but I haven't noticed any salty flavors with it.

Just fooling around :fro:

The nutrient I have and used in the starter is this LD Carlson product:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/winemaking/yeast-nutrient.html
It contains urea and ammonium phosphate.

Hightest has a good post in the Mead sticky FAQs that said to avoid using urea as the nitrogen source for your yeast as it can cause off flavors and the production of ethyl carbamate which has carcinogenic properties at high doses.
Check out the post here: http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/Urea.pdf

After re-reading hightest's post I'll just wait on my DAP. I had an additional DAP source during the inoculation so it's not like the yeast are completely neglected. I'm just trying to make the best batch I can but mazers have been fermenting honey for a long time now without staggered nutrient additions so I imagine it'll all be OK.

 

[raindogxx]

If you're looking for a quick solution you can always buy some bakers yeast from the supermarket and then boil or microwave them and add it as your nutrient.

oldmate, just curious for possible future applications, do you have to rehydrate and proof prior to boiling? Do you want to get a good population going before killing them off?

Thanks

 

[funkapottomous]

I was trying to avoid imparting a salty flavor.

then you probably shouldn't pee in it.

 

[raindogxx]

then you probably shouldn't pee in it.

I'm also thinking asparagus probably wouldn't mesh well...

 

[oldmate]

oldmate, just curious for possible future applications, do you have to rehydrate and proof prior to boiling? Do you want to get a good population going before killing them off?

Thanks

I would rehydrate them just so it's easier to pour into the solution without getting a mead-splosion. I wouldn't bother making a starter or anything just a small amount of water, the packet of yeasts would contain hundreds of thousands of cells anyway.