Yeast nutrients

[Icarus]

I have been using different yeast packets for sugar washes for neutral spirits from the HBS for years, but the time has come to have a go at yeast culturing.

When making wine years ago, we didnt have the luxury of being able to buy the prepacked sachets of yeast and nutrients, so used to add diammonium phosphate and some lemon juice. The diammonium phosphate has been banned I believe and is no longer available.

I have seen seveal threads in which posts have discussed culturing on your own strain, but what about nutrients for the yeasty beasties, as they do need some nitrogen which is available in washes containing molassess or made using raw sugar, but not in a wash made from refined sugar. This week IGA had 3kg packs of refined sugar on special for $2.69 so bought a few packs to use for brewing.

Would appreciate some guidance on yeast culturing and a recipe for yeast nutrients when using refined white sugar for a neutral spirit wash.

thanks in advance - Icarus

[R-sole]

DAP is still available, and still widely used. You can buy it fron your brew shop in small packs.
It's food grade.
I have it in bulk.

You can also make a yeast bomb your self, do a search for 'Pugirum' the yeast bomb recipe is in there. ;)

[Icarus]

Thanks 5Star. :D

I have found the info in the post you reccommended, but "Boil all for 15 minutes and strain"and fertiliser ???

I thought boiling the yeast would kill it off, but maybe the yeast is tougher than I thought.

The 20-0-0 it is a pure nitrogen fertilizer, but I wonder what impurities you run the risk of in using an industrial product. The only solely nitrogen fertilisers that I am aware of are Urea and ammonium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate does not sound too good because of the nitrate in it.

Is there one you would reccommend?

thanks,
Icarus

[R-sole]

The yeast in the yeast bomb is boiled to kill it. It's used as nutrients for the pitched yeast.

I wouldn't reccomend any fertilisers. i'd use dap (diamoinium phosphate). As i said earlier, it's food grade.

Contact me via PM if you can't source it elsewhere.

[Icarus]

Thanks 5Star.

I spent some time doing a search of my reference articles archive and the net and found some good articles online, one of which included "cooking" the yeast to produce a nutrient. They also suggested adding vitamin B, magnesium, a small quantity of calcium, yeast ghost hulls, and a nitrogen nutrient. It was mentioned in one article from our cousins across the Tasman in NZ that Urea in small quantities was permissable, but I believe that this would have to be a suitable food grade or equivalent, not sourced from an industrial fertiliser. I will look into this aspect further.

Perhaps one could use the yeast reclaimed from a finished fermentation after cleaning as a source of yeast cells for cooking for this purpose.

I will give this a try in the comming days after I check with the local HBS for some diammonium phosphate.

I am happy to post the links to the articles I found online if you think it would be of benefit to others using the forum.

Thanks again for your help. :D
Icarus

[The Stig]

I am happy to post the links to the articles I found online if you think it would be of benefit to others using the forum.

This would be a great thing for everybody, link away my friend. This could help many, we are all about learning :dance:

[Icarus]

Below are a set of links to a range of sites on yeast nutrition and yeast culturing. Please note the comment below from a post on Urea from a US a forum.

"Urea - Urea reacts with ethanol in certain situations to produce ethyl carbamate (urethane). Ethyl carbamate is genotoxic and has been found to be a multisite carcinogen inall species tested, including non-human primates. Urea is not the only precursor for ethyl carbamate formation but is the major precursor in alcoholic beverages. JECFA found that the ethyl carbamate intake from alcoholic beverages is of concern and recommended that measures to reduce the ethyl carbamate content in some alcoholic beverages should continue."

Looks like DAP is the way to go!

Links List

Yeast Nutrition

http://www.silveradohomebrew.com/pdfs/Y ... rticle.pdf

http://distillique.co.za/catalog/articl ... icles_id=5

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/new_disti ... essage/202

http://www.beer-brewing.com/beer-brewin ... ashing.htm

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/ ... f=&t=23065

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/feeding.asp

http://www.nys-homewine.info/PDFs/Nisbe ... rition.pdf

Yeast Culturing

http://www.alsand.com/beer/yeast/index_E.html

Part 1 video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aokg7fIkSXs

Part 2 video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ikg1xalTpQ

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/librar ... /king.html

http://archive.maltosefalcons.com/tech/ ... turing.php

cheers, Icarus :D