The Hidden Danger of Excess FAN (And Why Hops are to Blame)

We spend all our time choosing the perfect hops and dialing in our water profile—but are we treating our yeast like an afterthought?

A few weeks ago, we did a massive, deep-dive Q&A on yeast nutrition. But after our joint presentation with Dr. Glen Fox at the Craft Brewers Conference, a lot of brewers reached out asking for a quick, "high-level" breakdown of the fundamentals. On this short and sweet episode, Richard takes you under the hood of that CBC talk to look at yeast nutrition through the lens of the Pareto Principle: the 80/20 rule.

We cover the foundational inputs that drive 80% of your fermentation results, and why modern brewing trends are completely breaking the traditional rules of yeast health.

In this episode, we unpack:

• The FAN Goldilocks Zone: Why craft beer has an excess residual FAN problem, how hops add cold-side nitrogen, and why it leads to mousy or cooked-onion staling flavors.

• Mind the Zinc Gap: How the malting process accidentally strips away 86.7% of a grain's natural zinc, and why zinc deficiency triggers brutal diacetyl issues during hop creep.

• The Calcium vs. Magnesium Battle: Why hammering your Hazy IPA with Calcium Chloride ($CaCl_2$) might actually be blocking magnesium uptake and stalling your ferment.

• The $H_2S$ Vitamin Deficit: How a simple lack of Pantothenic Acid ($B_5$) causes yeast to pump out rotten-egg sulfur, even in high-FAN worts.

Think of this as your quick, executive summary of nutrition science—the perfect primer before you tackle our deep-cut Q&A episode!

Featured in this Episode:

• Learn more about our nutrient specifically formulated for the needs of beer yeasts, Yeast Lightning.