Staggered Nutrient Addition (SNA) - Mead University

Last updated January 24th 2023

Staggered Nutrient Additions (SNA) are the backbone of modern mead-making. The purpose of SNAs is to keep the yeast happy so that they do not produce off-flavors in mead.

SNAs have matured quite a lot in the past 10 years. Increased understanding of fermentation kinetics in mead led to the production of better nutrient protocols. As the creator of Bray’s One Month Mead, I personally have been working on SNAs for over a decade.

The protocol that I give below will work for any yeast in any type of mead. My SNA protocol may or may not look similar to other SNA protocols. Does that mean the others are wrong? Not necessarily. There is certainly more than one way to the goal. What I am absolutely sure of is that the below protocols WORK!! If you follow the SNAs exactly, you will make fusel free mead very quickly. In many cases, I can drink my meads 7 days after pitch. Low ABV meads in 5 days.

Our mead batch builder will provide you with yeast nutrient measurements tailored to your specific mead, scaling the amount of yeast nutrients based on the starting gravity of your mead.