Zinc Chloride

[roach]

I was talking to Tony Jones, Senior Brewer at Malt Shovel, yesterday and he suggested that I add a small amount of Zinc Chloride to the wort as a yeast nutrient to strengthen the bonds. He suggested this was particularly important for home brewers as subsequent generations of yeast have weaker bonds and need the nutrient to kick them off into a healthy state.

Who stocks Zinc Chloride powder?

Cheers
Roach

 

[normell]

Read this, see if it helps.
http://howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-9-1.html

 

[roach]

Thanks Normell. I was aware of that info and always a good reference point.

My question was whether Zinc Cloride was readily available in small quantities from a particular outlet(esp Adel).

Will try a few local chemical companies.

 

[Gulf Brewery]

The big problem is that there is no real way of knowing whether or not there is sufficent zinc and if you do go too far, it is toxic to the yeast. Usually malts have sufficient zinc for the yeast as you only require a trace. I have used Zinc Complex tablets (health food section of supermarkets), but I didn't see any improvement over not using them.

If you are going to add nutrient, you might as well add the WYeast nutrient blend and cover all bases.

Cheers
Pedro


Ace Chemicals have what you are after http://www.acechem.com.au

 

[Guest Lurker]

I think I saw a consistently more vigorous ferment after I started adding some zinc to each brew. Couldnt suggest where to get zinc chloride. My non-scientific approach is to grab SWMBOs Blackmores Bio Zinc tablets, scrape maybe 1/10th of a tablet into the boil. The active ingredient in the tablet is zinc amino acid chelate, rather than zinc chloride, but its only the zinc you are after I imagine.

 

[roach]

Thanks Pedro and GL.

Ace Chemicals here in Adel sell 500g for $33 plus GST. That would last me a lifetime of brewing. Tony Jones suggested to add a small pinch to the wort and I noticed that Graham Sanders on craftbrewers suggests 4g to a litre of distilled water, then add something like 4ml of the solution to 20 litre batch.

Oh and Tony also suggested that australian malts are typically grown in soil with insufficient quantities of zinc for yeast to be perfectly happy, and this adds to the need to supplement.

 

[Darren]

If you are going to add nutrient, you might as well add the WYeast nutrient blend and cover all bases.

Cheers
Pedro

BTW, LLalemand (sp) here in Adelaide sell a yeast nutrient. It is designed for wine. Doesn't need boiling. Maybe we could do a bulk buy.
Comes in 500g brick I think.
Darren

 

[Gulf Brewery]

Darren

I don't think most of the wine yeast nutrients are the same as those for the beer. They are different because of what you get from the raw materials (barley malt vs grape). Most likely it is Diammonium Phospate (DAP) with some extras.

Cheers
Pedro

 

[dicko]

Hi Guys,

Give Dave at Goliaths a call.
He stocks yeast nutrient.
$8.00 do do 1000 litres.

Cheers

 

[Darren]

Darren

I don't think most of the wine yeast nutrients are the same as those for the beer. They are different because of what you get from the raw materials (barley malt vs grape). Most likely it is Diammonium Phospate (DAP) with some extras.

Cheers
Pedro

Pedro,
I thought that a wine must was severely lacking in nutrients. Therefore it should be better than (or exactly the same thing) as beer nutrients.
Darren

 

[Darren]

They also sell Servomyces
http://www.lallemand.com/Brewing/eng/aboutus.shtm
no affiliation etc, etc

 

[Darren]

And this one
http://consumer.lallemand.com/danstar-lalvin/fermaid.html

 

[Gulf Brewery]

I thought that a wine must was severely lacking in nutrients. Therefore it should be better than (or exactly the same thing) as beer nutrients.

Darren

The only thing is that you can have too much of certain minerals / nutrients in the wort. The beer nutrient will give you the required balance, where the wine one may or may not.

I bought a small container of Wyeast nutrient for about $5 which will do 1100 litres. Thats a years brewing for most people.

Cheers
Pedro

 

[dreamboat]

I have recently started using zinc sulphate in the last 10 mins of the boil... only a very small amount. Something like 4g dissolved into 500ml of water, added at a rate of 2ml per 10l of brew. (worked out the numbers from info found at the craftbrewers website)

Certainly have been getting better ferments, but that could also be in part to better care when oxygenating the wort.


dreamboat