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Yeast Nutrient

BigBry68

Master Brewer
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Jun 13, 2014
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Youngsville, NC
OK so I had a minor explosion.  Thankfully I have a fridge/ fermentor; I had been recommended to use a yeast nutrient and it blew the top out and spewed the inside of my fridge (who would have thought?).  Any way I have a Bière de Garde that I just transferred to secondary after 10 days in primary, gravity was around 1.024, would like to drop it lower at least to 1.015.  Is now the proper time for nutrient?

I would like your feedback about nutrient uses all around also. 

Thanks in advance!!!

Semper Fi!
 
I only use nutrient once in a while, and when I do its in the boil. Nothing unsanitized goes in after wort is cooled other than yeast.
I haven't used it in a while, and don't think I am going to buy more. An acid rest and a protein rest added to the mash schedule for me seems to do the trick of getting the wort just right for the yeasties to consume.
 
I only use a yeast nutrient in the starter.
Small risk of infection adding to secondary, and there's little yeast activity in secondary.
 
In an all-grain, all malt wort, with only 1 generation of yeast, I'm not sure there is much of a reason to use nutrient. The main reason to use nutrient is to extend the health of the yeast into another batch. Otherwise, it can get "tired" in just a few generations.

Using nutrient in a starter is sound, because starters tend to be low gravity and you want to build up yeast sterols for the main event.

I think some nutrient in extract and partial mash batches is a good idea. Without it, I've seen a lot of incomplete fermentations. Malt extract just seems to have some portion of nutrients stripped out.

Nutrient needs to go into the boil because uptake is at it's peak at high krausen. Once primary fermentation is over, the yeast has already prepped itself for dormancy.
 
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