Distilled Water - Adding Yeast Nutrient

[sixdoubleo]

I have a WinExpert New Zealand Pinot Noir kit in its second day of fermentation. The day AFTER mixing the kit I noticed that the water I used was distilled. This particular kit is 4 gallons juice so I added roughly 2 gallons distilled water.

I remember seeing somewhere that you shouldn't use distilled water due to the lack of nutrients and minerals. After doing some research here the recommendation is to add a yeast nutrient to the batch to replace what has been lost due to distillation. So yesterday I picked up the following, with the following mixture guidelines...

FermaidK (Fermentation Aid Potassium) : 1 tsp / 5 gallons
Yeast Nutrient (DAP) : 3/4 tsp / 1 gallon

I imagine these numbers are for batches of grapes or must from scratch, and don't necessarily apply to a kit, which I assume has been engineered to have some nutrient "built-in"?

So my question is, how much of each should I add? Since I only added 2 gallons of distilled water, should I maybe use the above guidelines on 2 gallons? Or should I just apply the nutrients assuming a full 6 gallons? What would happen if I added too much of either component?

 

[Green Mountains]

If it's a six gallon kit I'd go with the full measurements. I don't think it'd affect things negatively.

 

[Wade E]

I would add 1 tsp of nutrient per gallon, it wont hurt anything to do so.

 

[cpfan]

First, thank you for explaining the name FermaidK. I have been hearing of this product for a long time without knowing it was a short form. I shouldda known that K part though.

Personally I wouldn't add any nutrient/energizer to a kit wine especially one this large. Many people make kits with distilled water without problem.

Steve

 

[sixdoubleo]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I went ahead and added about 1 1/4 tsp of the FermaidK and about 4 1/2 tsp of the DAP.

The airlock is going crazy and things seem to be fermenting nicely. From a starting SG of 1.102, three days ago, I'm now at 1.036 so seems like everything's going well.

I think I'll just use tapwater from now on to avoid accidentally using distilled.