No yeast nutrient!

[prison break fan]

Help folks! I have just started 6 gallons elderflower wine and have discovered I have no yeast nutrient! No chance to buy any as I live really rural and have no car at the moment. Is all lost or will it be okay with just yeast? Would really appreciate any advice, especially as I got stung collecting the elderflowers! pbf.

[Green Aura]

I don't think it will ruin it but the yeast may take a bit longer to get going. Have you got any Marmite or similar? That's what I use - about a quarter of a teaspoon.

[gregorach]

It'll be fine. I never use it.

[prison break fan]

Thanks both, No Marmite either, but shall put it on the shopping list! pbf.

[MKG]

Yeasts, like humans, like to live in an environment where all their requirements are met. Food, for instance.

If you're making wine from real fruit - you know, the puddly, cloudy mess you make after pulverising and mashing lots of source material - it's highly unlikely that any further nutrient is needed. On the other hand, if you're making wine from, for instance, tea bags, or fruit juices, or cordial, then the yeast is going to be on the famine side of nutrition. That's when yeast nutrient is needed.

Having said that, yeast, eventually, makes its own nutrient in the form of dead yeast cells - a perfect source of Vitamin B1 amongst other things. But that takes time. If you are using a nutrient-poor source material for your wine, than adding stuff which convinces the yeast cells that they've been there for quite some time cannot be a bad thing. So, yeast nutrient is good. Adding Vitamin B1 is good (either in the form of health-store tablets or Marmite). Actually, added B1 is, as it is turning out, probably the best thing you could do.

BUT, BUT, BUT, the yeast will, eventually, do it all by itself. So all we're talking about is time. A fermentation from scratch might take two months. With added nutrient and B1, you're down to one month, tops. In a wine made from lots of real fruit (and so having enough nutrient naturally), those additions can get you down to a couple of weeks.

So - desirable, but not necessary. Without nutrient additions, be prepared to wait. It's as simple as that.

Mike

[prison break fan]

Thanks Mike, patience is on my list of things to learn before I die! pbf.