Yeast Nutrient

Another daft question from me

Is it all the same? I have some wine yeast nutrient .... would that work for Ale yeast?

I thought all nutrient was the same be it for wine or beer. I use it for both wine and beer

Ah OK, cheers Mark. I'll give it a try

Would it be OK to add some half way through the ferment? wish I'd done it at the beginning.

ive never added it half way through but if its fermenting well I wouldn't bother

[GrowlingDog]

I've never used the stuff in beer. Do you need it ?

I've always thought it wasn't required as the malts give all the nutrients required by the yeast anyway?

It was suggested to me as a why of helping poor water quality.

it wont help with poor water. Nutrient is just like a boost to get the yeast started. Ive only used it once in beer and that was for a big Belgian starter.

Ah OK. Thanks Mark. My education continues

I add it to everything. I inferred from the Yeast book that malt does not ncessarily provide everything (especially nitrogen IIRC? [EDIT - No, I think it's zinc])

It's so cheap, I don't think twice about it.

Brewers typically do not add these sorts of nutrient blends unless brewing high adjunct or very high gravity brews. Zinc is one nutrient often added to wort, as yeast requires some zinc for growth. Wort zinc levels should be between 0.10–0.15 ppm. Zinc can come from copper when using copper brewing vessels, but most equipment is stainless steel, so zinc additions are helpful.

After a bit of research I found its not really needed for beer as above but if you are going to add it to the boil it should be within the last 10 mins