Yeast starter When.

[RobinW]

Hi all,
Been away from brewing for many years and hasn't it all changed.

I did an Irish red fresh wort which was weak and watery using Salfale 04 yeast

I now have the tools to do an 04 starter. DME, Flask and stirrer.

Will this make a big difference?

 

[RdeVjun]

How long since it was finished, how did you know it was finished and is it fully carbonated yet? Sometimes a few weeks conditioning can make profound differences to the flavour and mouthfeel characteristics.
IMO weak and watery is not that likely to be an issue resulting from choice of S-04 itself, making a starter may not make that much of a difference however that gear should be helpful but more for propagating liquid strains and particular circumstances. Underpitching (not enough and poorly- handled yeast) would be a possible issue and sometimes its a big rookie pitfall, usually manifests itself in sluggish ferment, strange and undesirable flavours, but its hard to say without more info. Some details on your ferment temperature control and details about the brewing process would help us.
Are you sure you want to try the same FWK, if so can you get some specs on it? Some of the retail FWKs aren't real flash when made as bog standard, they often scream out for extra hops or a particular yeast, but Irish Red isn't really a style that this would be applicable to. Other AHBers may provide their views on your particular FWK as well, does the retailer have any advice?
Anyway, there's a few things to contemplate, HTH.

Oh, and welcome back! Yes, hasn't the homebrew landscape changed radically over the last decade, there's been complete upheaval mainly around equipment, range of ingredients- there's a much stronger homebrew scene and vast craft brewing movement.

 

[Bribie G]

Hi Robin - welcome back onto the slippery slope.

As RdeV said the FWKs can be a bit ordinary and often need a bit of nudging with hops etc. Also Irish Red isn't a particularly strong flavoured style - a can of Kilkenny would confirm that.
With dried yeasts such as SO4 there's no real advantage in doing a starter. Dried yeasts are manufactured specifically for direct pitching and already have good levels of lipids etc.
It is possible to build them up using a "mini" brew then pitch the resulting slurry, but then you run the risk of overpitching the brew and maybe ending up with funny flavours.

The only thing about some dried yeasts is that some of them come in silly little packets but SO4 is sold in a good size for direct pitching.

As posted above a beer that tastes a bit thin in the mouthfeel on bottling or kegging can be excellent once it's built up some carbonation, the flavours matured a bit longer, and served nice and cool out of a chilled glass on the verandah after a mowing session.

 

[RobinW]

Cheers guys. The red is just over 2 weeks old. I did an IPA fresh wort with 04 and it's just fine.
Both started at 1.050 and both clapped out at 1.022 which is why I was thinking a starter.
I use a reflectometer and look for consistent readings over 3 days before kegging.
Plenty of other styles to try ...

 

[Bribie G]

Robin, a refractometer will give a misleading read once there is alcohol in the brew so I bet your final gravity was way less than 1.022. There's a conversion chart on the forum somewhere, but a hydrometer is the go. Personally because I basically only keg, I don't check FG, if it's been in the Fermenter long enough and cleared from the top and tastes ok, I keg it.

 

[warra48]

Refractometer adjustment chart here:

 

[RobinW]

No I didn't realise that. I was using the Brewzor phone app which shows a correction factor but I've just sent some time typing in random values and at one point it told me my SG was in the millions. So I deleted that one. I got BeerSmith last week and just noticed it has a refractometer tool, I'll have a fiddle with that one.