Instead of throwing it down the drain, could I spread it out on a tarp, allowing the alcohol and water to evaporate into the air and perhaps use it as fertilizer or something? There has to be some use for this stuff. Isn't there?
What to do with the lees?
- Thread starter Jonathan Paul Gordon
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I usually dig a hole in my flower garden, pour the lees in and bury them. Yeasties and stuff are good for the soil and flowers.
I dump mine around the fruit trees, alcohol and all. I figure I'll get some "terroir" yeast out of it eventually. You can also eat the lees like brewer's yeast - it is a tremendous vitamin tonic.
I wonder what I could do with this in VERY large quantities. Maybe there are local gardening clubs that would be interested. We produce about 5 gallons or more of slurry a week.
Maybe start a side business selling brewers yeast suppliments to local health clubs?
Nutritional Yeast (as it's oft called) is great for cooking too, the stuff I use is made by redstar. Great in white sauces, in place of bread crumbs on certain dishes, very high in protein for it's weight and it's got lots of nutrients. It's pretty close to perfect at replacing the animal ingredients when making vegan ceasar salad dressing.
Nutritional Yeast (as it's oft called) is great for cooking too, the stuff I use is made by redstar. Great in white sauces, in place of bread crumbs on certain dishes, very high in protein for it's weight and it's got lots of nutrients. It's pretty close to perfect at replacing the animal ingredients when making vegan ceasar salad dressing.
Marmite & Vegemite are the answer to "what do I do with the lees" in NZ and Oz. Might be harder to convince Americans to eat black sludge though...maybe if you put it on a hamburger?
We've been joking around for a while now about putting the stuff in jars and adding it to my product line as a facial masque. When I open up the skin care clinic we'll offer mead lees body wraps instead of sea weed body wraps.
Were they hot? Because, you know, the people who frequent health spas aren't always super models. Just sayin.
Maybe someone here knows: are mead lees good for the skin? Is there a holistic application, aside from vegimite/marmite (which I refuse to make).
In my fantasy they all looked like America Ferrera and Sara Ramirez. Maybe one like Christina Ricci.
But I digress....
But I digress....
Yeast cells will segregate nutrients, especially B vitamins. Not sure what that would do for you as a topical application but those Bs are very good for you when you eat them. Yeast will also hold onto stuff like zinc. Personally I don't see why the lees would be good to sit in, but on the other hand I can't imagine you'd be hurt by them either.
But (fortunately) those aren't caused by saccharomyces, but by a related (though different) organism called candida. If our friendly saccharomyces yeast caused yeast infections, that would be a real bummer!
do yeast infections even work like that?? eeeew.
My friend and I have drank the lees and mead at the bottom of the carboy, we called it "vitawine" b vitamins + booze. Not great tasting per se, but some are not bad. 71B is gross.
@medsen: I think it was Wayne B who tried a wild yeast culture from a raspberry leaf in his yard and discovered it was a commercial yeast that he used regularly and threw on the garden instead.
My friend and I have drank the lees and mead at the bottom of the carboy, we called it "vitawine" b vitamins + booze. Not great tasting per se, but some are not bad. 71B is gross.
@medsen: I think it was Wayne B who tried a wild yeast culture from a raspberry leaf in his yard and discovered it was a commercial yeast that he used regularly and threw on the garden instead.
Well, we conjectured that it was possibly a commercial strain gone feral, because it acted a lot like some R-HST I'd used a year earlier and had subsequently dumped near our mountain currant bushes. We didn't get that yeast plated and typed so I don't know that for sure. BTW - Medsen did in fact try some of the mead made with that feral strain, and he liked it! ;D
Right, duh. I really need to brush up on my latin.
Wolfie, there are three ways yeast infections can develop that I know. Most commonly it's just the normal yeast that grow on/in the body getting out of hand because some kind of imbalance (pH, antibiotics, moisture, temp, etc). Yeast infections can also be caused by large droplet transfer, or in rare cases, ingestion.
