I thought I would ask some questions.
Who uses nutrients? What do you use them in and which ones do you use?
There seems to be lots of ways to use nutrients in things like mead, wine, and even cider. Many people even debate whether and when they are actually needed especially in the mead space.
I’ve even been blocked before for suggesting SNA (Staggered Nutrient Addition) is unnecessary or elitist even though it’s a recent invention.
I don’t often use nutrients when I’m brewing beer unless I’m making a big beer (>8% A.B.V.) and I want to ensure a nice healthy fermentation. I do however use nutrients every single time I make cider/wine/mead since the fermentables here do not provide enough FAN (Free Amino Nitrogen) and so without them fermentation is sluggish, throws off a ton of sulfur and often requires a long conditioning/aging time to get to a point where I would want to drink it.
As for the actual nutrients I use, for beers I will use Wyeast Beer Nutrient Blend and for mead I rehydrate dry yeast with Go-Ferm and do a Staggered Nutrient Addition of Fermaid O over the first 4 days of fermentation along with oxygenating/degassing with pure O2 through a sintered stone.
Is FAN or YAN more important?
Have you done any comparison between SNA vs front loading? I actually want to do an experiment with that at some point but I am not really in a position to do that at the moment.
I would guess YAN is more important because what’s the point of having free nitrogen if the yeast can’t actually utilise it.
I’ve never done experiments between SNA and front loading all the nutrients. I don’t find the staggered additions difficult to do or a burden and I’m typically degassing/oxygenating anyway for the first few days. Plus it gives me an opportunity to take samples and see how fermentation is progressing.
Sure it’s technically more work than the one and done method of front loading but not enough of an added burden that it’s too much effort to bother.
The issue I have is not just that it’s more work but that the protocols go against manufacturers directions. For example TOSNA can recommend more than double the maximum pitch rate of Fermaid-O prescribed by the spec sheet. I also know too many nutrients can be harmful.
Then there are things like BOMM that combine many nutrients. This is strange given Fermaid-K contains DAP and some SNAs seem to want you to add both which seems redundant. It’s also a lot of effort and expense.
If I was using Fermaid-K I probably would do SNA, but I would follow the manufacturers method for that rather than the calculators people have made.
I would say the reason something like TOSNA goes against the manufacturer’s directions is because the manufacturer just provide a “generic” usage recommendation (e.g. 1.5g per gallon or 1/2 tsp per gallon) when they amount you use should absolutely be customized to the batch you are making. I would argue that the most important part of TOSNA isn’t the fact that the nitrogen sources are “Organic” (although I do firmly believe that organic nitrogen sources (i.e from dead yeast cells) that do not contain DAP lead to fewer temperature spikes from rapid fermentation and therefore produce far fewer fusel alcohols and therefore require less aging time to “mellow”), but that it is the fact that it is a “Tailored” protocol, taking into consideration not only the total volume of must, but the gravity of that must, the nitrogen requirements of the yeast being used for the fermentation, whether there is fruit being added which would reduce the extraneous nitrogen required to be added for healthy fermentation etc.
The thing is the manufacturers don’t give just one value for nutrient quantity. They often give a range such as 10-40g g/hL. I would have thought that nutrient protocols would still fall in that fairly broad range. Unless I am missing something.