Need a quick answer please, about to pitch, maybe...

I am cooling my wort right now. This will be my first batch that I'm doing with washed yeast. As I was decanting my starter I saw what I thought might have been a fruit fly fall out and go down the drain. I smelled and tasted it, and it was green apple all the way, confirmed by my wife. It didn't have this before right now, it smelled like beer/bread dough. So, is my starter ruined, or is that just acetalahyde? I'm using Wyeast 1084, which can have a green apple smell if fermented at high temps (which my starter was ~72-76). I guess the main question is should I still pitch? Should I make another starter? If so will my wort be OK in the fermenter while the starter does its thing? Thanks guys!

it might have been hops. go ahead and pitch. it should have killed the nasties if in high krausen anyway

Don't have an answer, but how close is the nearest LHBS? You could always get new yeast.

Three hour round trip, and it isn't open again until Wednesday. I do have more washed yeast and DME though.

Pitch the yeast (into the beer).

The wort and fermenter are 'sanitized'. This means most (but not all) bugs and contaminants are gone. By sanitizing everything you try and get conditions right that the yeast is by far the most populace live organism in the wort and it basically elbows everything else out by shear numbers. It creates alcohol faster than anything else has a chance to create off flavors. Once you have alcohol, you have a lot more protection.

One little fly might add some contamination, but you should be fine with the amount of healthy yeast you are going to pitch from the starter.

Hope this makes you feel better. ...... Now you are going to be checking the wort every 30 minutes to see when it starts. If it's going within 48 hours, don't be concerned. With a healthy starter, it should be off in less than 18.

PITCH IT! It will be fine!

^^^ What he said...

Thanks all! I went ahead and pitched at 68 degrees. I also had the thought that it would "elbow out" any bacteria, but things that seem logical to me in theory aren't always how it works in practice. I'm cool with lag time though, not that much of a noob anymore! I think what really got me was the sour apple smell that wasn't present before. After some thorough searching I finally found another thread that mentioned sour smell in the starter. Revvy seemed to think it was fine as well, so between that and here, we're golden.

BTW: OG sample tasted great. A little floral up front from goldings, and then nice and malty. 6 weeks can't come fast enough!

I ferment my starters at mid 70's on up so they normally don't smell or taste great. If it had a nasty smell I probably wouldn't use it, but with some acetalahyde I wouldn't worry at all.