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Author Topic: Lookin for advice on rehydrating with Fermax  (Read 2190 times)

Offline XxSTOZZYxX

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Lookin for advice on rehydrating with Fermax
« on: January 10, 2018, 01:50:38 pm »
So I'm going on year two, completely hobbyist, not even sure what batch i'm on at this point, but thus far it's been pretty routine beyond recipe. Next brew is a porter I've gotten comfortable with as some form of control.

Recently I decided to give Fermax and Whirlfloc a go, if nothing else to see how they effect my process and what kind of difference it'll make in my final product.

Now I've read up on the hows, whys, and whens, but what I couldn't really find definitive info on, was using Fermax while rehydrating like you would Go Ferm.

Dry yeast, btw.

Would it be beneficial at all to spike the rehydration, or just toss in on the last leg of the boil per instruction?

Not looking to sway on the do/dont of the additives, they're goin in this batch, just curious on the pros/cons if any on rehydrating with the nutrient.

Offline Iliff Ave

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Re: Lookin for advice on rehydrating with Fermax
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2018, 01:53:23 pm »
I got an email about this the other day:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2018/01/03/the-right-way-to-hydrate-dry-yeast-for-beer-brewing/

He talks about using GoFerm. Is that the same as Fermax?
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Offline XxSTOZZYxX

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Re: Lookin for advice on rehydrating with Fermax
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2018, 08:57:28 am »
I don't think so... From what I'm gathering it's a different compound.

That article led me to another forum where I found some specifics.

It looks like Fermax and most other nutrients contain diammonium phosphate, DAP, and this appears to be detrimental to rehydrating yeast.

GoFerm does not contain DAP, and specifically for rehydration.

Granted, the bit about DAP being a no no for rehydration I only found one source on, but I think I'll just rehydrate as usual and not risk it.

Thanks for the post, helped me track down some info pretty readily.

Offline Aksarben

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Re: Lookin for advice on rehydrating with Fermax
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2018, 10:36:59 pm »
Go Ferm is a special yeast hydration compound created using dead yeast hulls, and some amino acid constituents and is not a yeast nutrient.  If this is what you are referring to, be warned,  yeast nutrient is toxic to yeast at high levels.  Using Fermaid O, Super Food, or DAP in water to hydrate dry yeast is not recommended as it will stun and kill your yeast.  Only water, or water with 1: 1.25 ratio of Go Ferm should be used.  Your yeast will love you for that. 
Vernon

Associate Winemaker, Fenn Valley Vineyards
Fennville, MI

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Offline mabrungard

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Re: Lookin for advice on rehydrating with Fermax
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2018, 12:37:32 pm »
I can't recommend rehydrating yeast with Fermax. Nor can I recommend that ANYONE use luke warm (104F) water for hydration since it's too easy for the typical homebrewer to make a mistake and use water that is too warm,killing the yeast. Using room-temperature water has been proven to be equally good as the luke warm water for rehydration in several research journal articles. So don't believe anyone, including Scott Laboratories, that you need to use luke warm water.

While you can read more about yeast rehydration on the Bru'n Water Facebook page, I can tell you that rehydrating with straight distilled or RO does not produce the best yeast viability. The simplest and easiest solution for yeast rehydration is to add epsom salt to either distilled or RO water. 1 to 2 grams epsom salt per quart of water is all you need.
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Offline Aksarben

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Re: Lookin for advice on rehydrating with Fermax
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2018, 01:29:29 pm »
Fermax is minerals, amino acids, some yeast hulls and some  Urea and Diammonium Phosphate.  Use it sparingly in your beer, maybe 1/2- 1 tsps per 5 gallons. Since I don't know the proportion of how much nitrogen compounds is actually used, and how much "filler" at this point hard to say the toxicity to yeast in a starter.

Water, you can use warmer water but be WARNED, as mentioned above too high of a temp will kill yeast.  We do follow Scott Lab recommendations, to a point, using water that is around 98 to 103 F.  We also use a very sensitive and accurate digital thermometer to measure the water temp before adding the yeast.  I have the same one here at home.  They are not expensive and if you DO decide you want something warmer than 65 or so F water, then USE a digital accurate thermometer ALWAYS before adding any yeast to it. 

We also use Go Ferm yeast hydration nutrient in our water before hydrating yeast.  I found that very hot water  (140 F) works great at getting that stuff dissolved,  BUT and bit BUT we then add cold water to the 5 gallon buckets of water we use for the yeast hydration to get the temp back down under 104 F.    We did 163,000 gallons appx. of wine in 2017 and over 270,000 gallons of cider in 2017 using yeast hydration water in the upper 90s to l03 F temps.  I would suggest, as I said above, either get a decent thermometer,  which you should already have if you're doing beer, and just hydrate at room temp water. 
« Last Edit: January 14, 2018, 09:31:20 pm by Aksarben »
Vernon

Associate Winemaker, Fenn Valley Vineyards
Fennville, MI

I was born with nothing, and have managed to keep most of it.