Nutrients, DAP, energizer, fermaid k, etc... Help!

[scottv]

So I am finding it hard to keep all these things separate. I have read these forums and also kens book but I am still having a hard time understanding what I need to buy.

Is fermaid k the same as dap?
Should I use energizer when I wake up the yeast at pitching?
Do I need to use energizer?
I currently have only fermaid k and did SNA on my last mead batch, is that sufficient?

Please help me understand better... Thanks!

[wayneb]

Fermaid-K is a good all around yeast nutrient, and for grape and other fruit wines it is often sufficient to just add Fermaid-K to promote a healthy fermentation. Fermaid-K has both inorganic (DAP) and organic (amino acids) nitrogen compounds, and each of those is useful at specific times in the yeast life cycle. For meads, since the must has almost no nitrogen to speak of, a combination of Fermaid and DAP is often used with good results. Energizers are often just DAP-based formulations, so I don't see the benefit in using a generic energizer.

Although you may have been a little light in nitrogen nutrients in your latest batch, as long as the yeast didn't smell excessively of H2S,your additions are fine for the yeast strain that you used.

[scottv]

Originally Posted by wayneb

Fermaid-K is a good all around yeast nutrient, and for grape and other fruit wines it is often sufficient to just add Fermaid-K to promote a healthy fermentation. Fermaid-K has both inorganic (DAP) and organic (amino acids) nitrogen compounds, and each of those is useful at specific times in the yeast life cycle. For meads, since the must has almost no nitrogen to speak of, a combination of Fermaid and DAP is often used with good results. Energizers are often just DAP-based formulations, so I don't see the benefit in using a generic energizer.

Although you may have been a little light in nitrogen nutrients in your latest batch, as long as the yeast didn't smell excessively of H2S,your additions are fine for the yeast strain that you used.

So even though fermaid k has DAP in it, you should still add more?

[akueck]

You could just add more Fermaid K if you really wanted to. However, Fermaid has things besides the nitrogen--vitamins, micronutrients, etc. Since you're really needing to boost the nitrogen content of your honey must, adding a little extra DAP in addition to the Fermaid K gets you what you need without extras.