NAY - Non Alcoholic - Q&A

NAY is a yeast selected for producing non-alcoholic (<0.5% ABV) beers. 

For the answers to most of your non-alcoholic beer brewing with NAY questions, refer to our Guide to Making Non Alcoholic Beers Through Fermentation. 

See below for more Q&A: 

What is the standard pitching rate of NAY and non-alcoholic yeasts? 

For our NAY, we use a standard pitching rate of 10 million cells / mL, independent of wort strength. We've found that a lower pitch rate yields less consistent results, even though this is an "overpitch" by the old rule of thumb (e.g. 1 Mcell/mL/degP). 

Can I do cell counts of NAY using a hemocytometer? 

You can count NAY cells on a microscope. Note that the cells are apiculate, meaning they are shaped like lemons or bowling pins rather than the spherical yeast cells you may be used to counting. We have heard of some inconsistent results with methylene blue and NAY, we recommend Erythrosin B. 

Can I use NAY to ferment a sour wort? 

NAY is tolerant to acidic conditions as low as 3.0 pH so it should have no problem with pre-soured wort to make NA sour beers. However, note that you can also produce a non-alcoholic sour using Lactobacillus brevis alone - check our out Guide linked above for more information. 

Can I use NAY to make a non-alcoholic cider or wine?

NAY is not suited to the goal of producing a non-alcoholic cider or wine. It is maltose-negative but not fructose or glucose-negative, which are the dominant sugars in cider and wine musts. As a result it will produce alcohol in these environments, creating a cider/wine over 0.5% ABV (up to 4-5% ABV). If you want to make a non-alcoholic product based on grape or cider juice, we recommend investigating membrane de alcoholization technology.