Would you be interested in doing another trial with a Lallemand product? This time, they’re looking for feedback on a yeast nutrient of theirs in a cider and/or mead fermentation. We are still working out details, but I thought I’d throw a poll up to see how many people would be interested. We’re most likely looking at doing side-by-side fermentations in separate fermenters, one with their nutrient and one with a competitor in the same juice/must.
So what do you say? Are you interested?
Comptez sur moi!
Count me in!
0voters
Seriez-vous intéressé par un autre essai avec un produit Lallemand ? Cette fois, il s’agit de recueillir des commentaires sur un de leurs nutriments pour levure dans le cadre d’une fermentation de cidre et/ou d’hydromel. Nous sommes encore en train de régler les détails, mais j’ai pensé lancer un sondage pour voir combien de personnes seraient intéressées. Nous envisageons très probablement de faire des fermentations côte à côte dans des fermenteurs séparés, l’un avec leur nutriment et l’autre avec un concurrent dans le même jus/moût.
I have a couple of 1 gallon glass jars waiting to be filled, and Moût International will have some apple juice for sale in bulk on October 2nd. I think it will be a perfect timing and a great opportunity for me to ferment my first cider!
A couple of questions:
Do you know what is the experimental setup?
Will 1 gallon fermentation allowed?
Should we compare with a no nutrient control? If so, we should plan for at least 3 different fermentations.
Do Lallemand expects use to ferment the juice with a particular yeast, or would a wild ferment acceptable?
I’ll be fermenting at least 40L this fall and would be happy to try using nutrients. Normally I don’t because I use cider yeast and thought it wasn’t necessary. Norm’s questions are super pertinent.
I don’t think we’re looking at a true statistically significant -type study here, but we’ll try to structure it so we and they get the most meaningful information out that we can given the lack of control in different people’s fermentation capacity.
I’d imagine we’ll put a minimum/maximum batch size on it, but 1 gal should be within that range.
I like the idea of including a no-nutrient control. This will most likely be optional though, as some people may not want to risk a third batch taking a long time in one of their fermenters.
We are talking about what yeasts to use (or not use). My guess is it will be up to the brewer as long as the two (or three) batches are all the same yeast. Should you want to use a dry yeast, I’m sure we can figure a way to get a Lallemand one in there.
Also, I’ll throw out what I have heard/read about the usage of nutrients in cider and mead ferments
In general, cider juice and mead must are low in nutrients, amino acids, and other things that yeast use to replicate and ferment (that beer wort generally provides). Commercial nutrients tend to make sure the yeast have everything they need for a healthy fermentation (e.g. grow to a sufficient number to eat the sugars in the solution, then eat the sugars before going for a nap), resulting in cleaner and faster ferments than un-supplemented yeasties.
That is sometimes good (e.g. avoiding off-flavors, stalls in fermentation), and sometimes less good (e.g. vigorous fermentation driving off the “apple aroma”)
From personal experience, I can say I often supplement my cider/cyser yeasts with a bit of nutrient to make sure they ferment fully and relatively quickly. I’ve tried going the slower route, but not noticed much of an improvement in flavor/aroma, in my opinion, to make it worth it. I also tend to be an impatient brewer, wanting to taste the end-product ASAP, so take that as you will.