Yeast Nutrient
When brewing alcohol often one adds yeast nutrient (i've been reading up on it). Basically it does what it says on the tin. Food for the yeast, rich in nutrients and helps them on their way. This can be bought from brewing stores and is added to the must or wort. What is also interesting is boiled yeast can act as yeast nutrient!
While i've never done it I am aware that people use deactivated yeast in bread doughs for increased elasticity and as a bread improver. Now i'm not sure if the two are used in exactly the same way. In alcohol brewing it's a yeast nutrient so more as a food. In bread baking it's done more so on how it reacts with the gluten. So both are improvers but coming from a slightly different angle. One targets the yeast and the other targets the gluten and therefore structure.
Question is can yeast nutrient when talking about brewing alcohol be used in the same way as a yeast improver in a starter? Would adding deactivated yeast into a starter give it a boost? And can this be done without the special 'chemicals' and instead boiling baker's yeast to be used in feeds?
Purely looking at this from a scientific point of view. Don't think a starter should need it (although in alcohol brewing it's done quite often) but could be an option if someone feels their starter needs a boost.
I've been reading up a bit on wine, mead and beer brewing when I came across this and interested if it translates into bread baking.