rhino777 wrote:what did you use for a sub?
None of the 3 closest LHBSs in my area had Go-Ferm or Fermaid K. I was told by all of them that they were unnecessary and could be substituted with their own generic products or a couple of branded products. I was told
Wyeast Wine Yeast Nutrient Blend was the equivalent of Go-Ferm (it's not) so thats what I used to prepare my starter. I was also told that both yeast "nutrient" and "energizer" or even Servomyces were all equivalent to Fermaid K. I bought all three and subbed the
Servomyces for Fermaid K.
The guys on gotmead.com alerted me to the fact that Wyeast Yeast Nutrient Blend is just a yeast energizer and contains DAP which will severely harm yeast during starter preparation. Apparently energizers, nutrients, nutrient blends, or Servomyces are not acceptable substitutes for either Go-Ferm or Fermaid K. Fermax looks like it contains DAP (diammonium phospate) so it definitely is not a sub for the Go-Ferm yeast starter prep and probably not a sub for Fermaid K since they recommend adding DAP sultaneously along side Fermaid K. They also warned that this kind of thing happens all the time when taking mead advice from well meaning but beer oriented LHBS staff. They are well meaning but too often don't know enough to know they don't know about mead.
I subbed the wrong products in a 5 gallon batch of Vanilla Raspberry Blossom Sweet Mead and an 8 gallon batch of a multiberry semisweet melomel. Luckily I have about 25lbs left to do correctly. I had to order Go-Ferm and Fermaid K from morebeer.com...both are very inexpensive.
If you had to sub something I think that plain old yeast nutrient could be subbed for both and might be the least harmful as it should not contain DAP as the energizers do. But apparently you would be missing out on all the other critical yeast nutrients in the recommended products.
Mead is far easier than beer but just different enough that your mead will benefit from a look over at gotmead.com. Unlike what I did, be sure to ask before you add. It looks like most guys there don't heat the honey, don't use campden tablets, and don't sulfite the end product. Just mix the honey with a little water for 5 minutes, dilute to your desired volume, add your Go-Fermed yeast starter, and stir in a little Fermaid K and DAP every day until about a third of the sugar is gone (4 or 5 days according to Schramm). Then just let it sit and finish fermentation for about a month before racking off the lees into secondary. There are more technical methods to determine aeration and nutrient addition schedule but they all amount to about the same thing.
