First beer dumped in 7 years of brewing

Laziness bit me in the ass. I had two carboys fermenting out a 10 gallon batch with same yeast and pitching rates, equal oxygenation, good sanitization, and ferment temp was dead on.

The first keg turned out a nice pale ale; however, the second which I just tapped knocked me on my butt with acetoaldehyde suckage. How did this happen you might ask? Well the seal broke during fermentation. Of course that is not a big deal until you factor lazy as I walked by my fermentation fridge and saw that the outside temp gauge was where I wanted and assumed all was well...well, all was not well as the bung had dislodged on one carboy and had probably sat like that for two weeks. Now the beer has had plenty of time to age so I know it will not clear out with further aging, its disgusting green apple yuckage, so its time to dump my first batch ever.

Anyway, its a rookie mistake that I hope someone who reads this will spare themselves from at some point. Keep your seal.

Slainte

Yeah, I have to look at mine every few hours when I'm home. I guess it's because I'm still a little bit of a noob. I just can't see myself not looking at it during multiple phases of fermentation.

Yeah, eventually the fun wares off, you know what fermentation looks like so no need to look at it if it means letting the heat/cool out of the fridge and messing with temps. But I know now to give it a daily check to make sure my seal is tight.

Open fermentation shouldnt hurt anything unless you are in a room with lots of airborne dust and dirt. I have fermented with just a sheet of plastic and a board covering the bucket.

Yeah, I didn't think anything of it until I tried it...unless it got infected somehow which is possible cause of the green apple, but I think it was just too much exposure to air.