I know that Oranges or OJ are often used as a replacement for Yeast Nutrient in a Mead, I was wondering if Lemons could be used instead? Has anyone tried? I had a quick poke in the history but couldn’t see anything.
I’ve never heard that, and it doesn’t make sense to me at all. The biggest reason you need yeast nutrient for meads is that honey is seriously deficient in FAN. Another need is zinc. Neither of these are present in citrus at the levels you’d need for healthy fermentation. I can’t imagine that either fruit would be a good substitute for proper yeast nutrients in a mead.
not nutrient, but they could both theoretically be used to adjust pH and acid balance. It would be hit or miss though because as natural produces their levels of acid vary greatly.
Very unlikely that lemon would supply much in the way of yeast nutrient. The main contributions are citric acid and simple sugars.
Thanks for all the replies. I have clearly been mislead. I have brewed mead successfully in the past without Yeast Nutrient (using Orange Juice) so I am going to give it a go with Lemons and see what happens. I may end up stressing the yeast I guess but we’ll see!
There seems to be some ‘mythology’ around meadmaking, but I don’t know any experienced meadmakers who would add fruit to mead as a replacement for nutrients. Doesn’t make sense since wine and cider makers still add nutrients to their musts. Fruits just aren’t dense enough in nutrients that adding a small portion will make a difference in the nutrients available to yeast.
So I’d guess lemons will work as well as oranges do.