Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Mead, wine, beer, and any other form of alcoholic beverages, as well as vinegar.

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Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby dandelionwine on Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:41 pm

I am new to the forum but made some wine before.
Many recipes call for special yeasts, I know that you can use natural yeasts, but would bakers yeast help the fermentation?
Second recipes ask for yeast nutrients, what are those - can they be replaced?
When I want to make wine I often do not have lemons at home - what are suitable replacements?
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Re: Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby khoomeizhi on Tue Jan 27, 2015 5:55 am

if you culture wild yeasts, adding baking yeast probably won't help (but probably won't hurt). using just baking yeast usually won't get to 'wine-levels' of alcohol.
people sometimes kill baking yeast (boil some for a bit) to use as yeast nutrient for other yeasts. i've heard of folks using raisins and such for nutrients, too.
other acids? i assuming you're not looking to buy powdered acids or such at a home-brew store? many wild ferments have vinegar-makers living in them already. keeping them in an aerobic location for a while can add a bit of acidity (but then i'd want an airlock).
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Re: Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby dandelionwine on Tue Jan 27, 2015 5:11 pm

That's interesting with the yeast nutrients. What are yeast nutrients anyway? I like the raisin idea.
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Re: Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby ampeyro on Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:51 pm

I've read somewhere that molasses are used as a nutrient to mass produce yeast, so molasses or brown sugar should work.
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Re: Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby bjdmytro on Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:37 pm

Basically yeast nutrient is an assortment of nutrients (phosphates, urea, minerals, vitamins, etc) that keep the yeast healthy and out growing foreign organisms. The urea is rich in the elements for forming amino acids and the phosphates are used for forming phospholipids that make up cell walls. A carbohydrate, like molasses, won't be the same. Yeast nutrient is geared towards yeast cell reproduction. I've brewed wine without it, but it can get a bit of an off flavor from foreign organisms or too slow of fermentation.

I recommend you read this article about yeast nutrient:
https://beerandbrewing.com/what-exactly ... -nutrient/

If you are thinking about using wild yeast or baking yeast, then you are not concerned about flavor. Wild yeast is a huge gamble with the flavors and strength of the final product, and it is highly possible that vinegar forming bacteria will be introduced along with the wild yeast. Baking yeast makes a foul smelling and tasting brew, in my experience. I've had wine and beer made with baking yeast, and both have an off, almost cough syrup flavor. If you want to brew wine that is good, I highly recommend that you invest the $1 in a decent quality yeast. I think that the red star wine yeast is about $1.20 at my local hardware store. They also carry yeast nutrient for about $2.50.

When I spend the time and invest in the fruit or grain to brew, I want it to taste good, so I often use a specific yeast culture, temperature control, etc.

One item you didn't mention is sulfites. These are often added to wine, and I find them to give the wine a rotten egg flavor and aroma, causing one to get red and flushed after consuming. I advise not adding sulfites to your brew. It is often marketed as campden tablets that contain potassium and/or sodium metabisulfite. Wine already will have naturally occuring sulfites and doesn't need any more added.
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Re: Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby Christopher Weeks on Mon Apr 30, 2018 1:57 pm

The opinion directly above is common, but not the only valid one. In particular, this is BS:

"If you are thinking about using wild yeast or baking yeast, then you are not concerned about flavor."

Because wild microbial colonies provide flavors that you simply cannot get from a packet of single-strain wine yeast. That packet of yeast gives you safety and consistency, but not every imaginable flavor.

I have to assume that everyone is familiar with the sour beer movement by this point as the current cutting edge of craft brewing. It isn't actually my jam, but it can teach us a lot of about soliciting the world of wild organisms for additional flavor profiles that can be productively experimented with. I assume no one wants to assert that the entire wild beer movement is "not concerned about flavor."
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Re: Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby khoomeizhi on Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:14 am

i've gotten tied up doing other stuff for months and months, but just wanted to pop in and agree ^.

i've been doing a fair amount of all-wild-yeast mead making for years (70+ batches). i'm totally interested in flavor. yes, vinegar-producing organisms can be introduced when culturing wild yeasts, but since those organisms need oxygen to produce vinegar, and yeasts don't need it further along in fermentation to produce alcohol, it can pretty easily be managed with the use of an airlock. i do use a more specific process than an open-topped 'catch whatever's there' container - i've found it helpful to learn to culture yeasts from specific promising sources.

my results are not always completely predictable, but are consistently good - and not in an 'i don't know any better' kind of way.

also, i find it just a little strange to visit a wild-fermentation board to pooh-pooh wild-yeasted ferments. that opinion (being an opinion) is as valid as the next, but...to put it forward here?
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Re: Yeast and yeast nutritiens, lemons

Postby EastTexasRed on Tue May 23, 2023 7:13 am

khoomeizhi wrote:i've gotten tied up doing other stuff for months and months, but just wanted to pop in and agree ^.

i've been doing a fair amount of all-wild-yeast mead making for years (70+ batches). i'm totally interested in flavor. yes, vinegar-producing organisms can be introduced when culturing wild yeasts, but since those organisms need oxygen to produce vinegar, and yeasts don't need it further along in fermentation to produce alcohol, it can pretty easily be managed with the use of an airlock. i do use a more specific process than an open-topped 'catch whatever's there' container - i've found it helpful to learn to culture yeasts from specific promising sources.

my results are not always completely predictable, but are consistently good - and not in an 'i don't know any better' kind of way.

also, i find it just a little strange to visit a wild-fermentation board to pooh-pooh wild-yeasted ferments. that opinion (being an opinion) is as valid as the next, but...to put it forward here?


Absolutely agree, and once again I recommend referring to Sandor Katz's book The Art of Fermentation in which he goes into the question of wild vs. cultivated yeasts.
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