Does time heal severe underpitching?

So my starter apparently wasn't big enough and I severely underpitched an IPA. Right now the banana and other wrong flavors are overpowering. I gave the beer 2 weeks in the primary and 2 in the secondary. Its been in the keg almost 2 months and it still tastes like ass. I'm really bummed but I'm stuck with it at this point. I need the keg so I'm thinking about bottling from the keg and sticking them in a closet indefinitely. Is it worth it? Don't really want to spend a couple hours and 2 cases of bottles just to hope it will eventually taste right. Anyone?

I would say if it has not worked itself out by now or at least made tremendous improvement, it just isn't going to happen. If it is truly crap, then pitch it and call it a learning experience. The longer beer ages, the more subtle the changes, so you should notice most improvement/difference in the first month or two.

If it's that bad, I'm not sure I would waste the energy or bottles. The bright hopiness will probably fade before the esters will.

Confirmed my suspicions...Oh well win some lose some.

johnnyc, ...saw the coldwater 420... do you shop at Just Brew It?

Grizzlybrew said:

johnnyc, ...saw the coldwater 420... do you shop at Just Brew It?

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No, I'm about 2 miles from Winecraft, I found the recipe on here and did it as my first partial mash. I kegged it 2 days ago so I'll prob give it a taste tonight.

What temp did this batch ferment at? It sounds more like hot fermentation than underpitch, I could be wrong though.

Swamp cooler kept below 70 for the first couple days then I finished my fermentation chamber and moved it to there at 67 for the next 1 1/2 weeks. It may have been a lil warm but either way its not worth saving. Oh well.

Nah, doesn't sound to warm at all for me. How big was your starter anyway?

It wasn't the starter sizer per se, more like there wasn't enough yeast in my harvested tube of yeast to give it a good start. Having said that it was a 2 qt 6oz of DME on a stirplate for 24 hrs. I've got to work on my yeast washing technique, I don't think I'm saving enough of the trub to get all the yeast.

Ah, I see what you mean. No worries man, sorry the batch has gone south on you :-/

A couple hours and some bottles is nothing. Just bottle it and forget about it. And then 6 months from now you'll try one and it'll either be fine or it'll be terrible. But give it that chance at least.

Evan! said:

A couple hours and some bottles is nothing. Just bottle it and forget about it. And then 6 months from now you'll try one and it'll either be fine or it'll be terrible. But give it that chance at least.

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+1. I blended 1 part stout to 5 part mild and it tasted "interesting." 4 months later it is very complex, filling, yet a session beer. Time heals.