As many of you guys know, I have been brewing beer a lot for a while now. Well, about 5 months already and I have brewed about 5 batches. And many of the brews you see me either adding some sort of baker’s yeast (boiled and as Yeast Nutrients) or actual Yeast nutrients into the brews. And I use them even for my brews which are all-malt. Some brewers say that all-malt wort contains everything the yeast needs for a healthy fermentation. And I agree with them. All of my all-malt brews came out fine without any stuck fermentation or problems. Even without some amount of adjuncts, my brews came out fine.

So why do I use Yeast Nutrients? Well, think of them as you taking your vitamin pills every morning. You don’t need them as you can get Vitamins from the food you eat everyday. But it sort of gives you a boost to help you through the day. Not to mention, even with a decent amount of food, you may still be lacking some important nutrients for your body to be in tip top shape. Remember that the Yeast is working very hard to convert sugar to alcohol for you and you want them to be in the best of shape to create the best tasting alcohol. So why not just give it a little push? Only good things will happen if you do that.

Yeast nutrients are not expensive. I got a bottle of yeast nutrients (about 28g) for just S$3. I use about 2 teaspoon per batch. If you find it too expensive, then just use baker’s yeast. I found one pack about 50g about S$2.50 or so. Remember to add the baker’s yeast to the boil to ensure that any bacteria or germs is killed. I was told that normally baker’s yeast are not that clean or sanitized as compared to brewer’s yeast because they are supposed to be baked (which kills the germs and bacteria present in the baker’s yeast) anyway. But they do work. I always get very active fermentation when I used Baker’s yeast as yeast nutrients.