Ferment Nutrients

The additives that proved so successful this year:

Recipe
10 gal. water, warm
25 lbs. sugar
115 g tartaric acid
80 g yeast nutrient
40 g diamonium phosphate (DAP)
05 g calcium citrate

Makes 12 gal total or scale as needed. Water temperature between 70F and 90F will make the yeast feel welcome and helps the sugar dissolve. Yeast nutrient is nutritional yeast, the same as that sold for humans at the grocery store. Diamonium phosphate is a nitrogen fertilizer. Some yeasts need more than others but a little extra is better than not enough. The tartaric acid could be another acid, even lemon juice or an acid blend. Yeast is happy in an acidic environment and most bacteria are not. If for red wine the acid addition would be 230 g to give the correct acidity in the finished beverage. Calcium is needed for yeast reproduction. If the water has less than 15 ppm calcium you need to add some. You can also use calcium carbonate (shells, antacid) or calcium sulfate (plaster of paris).

General formula in grams per liter:
1000 water
300 sugar
3 tartaric acid (6 for wine)
2 yeast nutrient
1 DAP
.1 calcium citrate

Makes 1.2 liter

3 comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Ziraud November 22nd, 2007 10:56 am

    One thing to add, and that’s that the yeast nutrient we use is “Superfood” which, according to its maker, contains DAP, yeast extract, yeast hulls, potassium, magnesium, manganese, zinc (as well as other trace minerals, and a vitamin mix including thiamine, biotin and pantothenic acid.

    So it’s a little different than what you’d buy in the grocery store — though that’s not to say that what you’d buy in the store wouldn’t also work.

  2. geowehn November 23rd, 2007 9:22 am

    I used store bought yeast nutritional dietary supplement.

  3. Ziraud November 23rd, 2007 11:53 am

    I should also clarify that G’s post isn’t about what we did with our main ferments (the Cab Sauv, Franc and Merlot), but with our secondaries – in particular our piquette (code-named Pinto), which arose from the cake of our Cab Sauv press.

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