Beer Forum

I have been using servomyces in all of beers, however I just noticed that the Wyeast nutrient is significantly cheaper. Are these nutrients different or is Wyeast just cheaper because it is not premeasured in a pill. Here are links to descriptions of both.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/b ... -5-oz.html

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/b ... myces.html

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hornybrew wrote:I have been using servomyces in all of beers, however I just noticed that the Wyeast nutrient is significantly cheaper. Are these nutrients different or is Wyeast just cheaper because it is not premeasured in a pill. Here are links to descriptions of both.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/b ... -5-oz.html

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/b ... myces.html

I can't answer your question but I've been using Wyeast' nutrient because it is so much cheaper and haven't had any fermentation problems... but I am not doing anything too strenuous either like high gravity or anything.

the Wyeast stuff has been working very good for me so far...

Me too..........

I used to use Servo, switched over to Wyeast because of price. I haven't done this scientifically, but I find I prefer Wyeast because

1) anecdotally I get faster, more vigorous fermentations. I will qualify that to say that my brewing got better as I switched so it may or may not have been due to wyeast nutrient. but I produce good beer, if I can say so myself

2) it's significantly cheaper. For $3 of I get 20 batches of beer and 20 starters with wyeast. For $8 I get like 6 batches of beer and no starters with servomyces. It's a no brainer to me. It would cost me over 30+ dollars to get the same amount of use out of servo as wyeast nutrient

3) because it's not premeasured I can use it in a more versatile fashion. i.e., I can put a small measured amount in my starters and a larger amount in my beers.

As far as I can tell the only real advantage of to servomyces is that it's reinheitsgebot certified but I really don't care about that in the slightest. Perhaps it contains some special biomolecules attached to it (it's basically dead yeast hulls killed at hoptimal health so they contain all the goodies they need). However, I haven't noticed it to work any better. I'll pay the extra cost if I thought it would help my brewing, but I think it's a waste of money for anyone who's not a professional german brewer.

To throw another wrench in the wheel...

In addition to Servomyces, White Labs also has another yeast nutrient in a similar style container to the Wyeast stuff but more expensive: http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=261_270_289_299&products_id=1707