Beer Maybe Not Quite As Infected As I Thought...

About a year ago I brewed a very high gravity hop-heavy brown ale. After a few weeks of fermentation, I opened up the fermenter and was hit by a wave of cidery smelling air. I decreed the beer had been infected and disregarded its existence.

Fast forward to yesterday. Out of sheer laziness, the beer has never been moved from the carboy. I opened it up and lo and behold, the smell has largely subsided! There's a mild green apple aroma/taste to the beer, making me assume it's acetaldehyde. When I brewed this beer, I just tossed in a vial of White Labs WLP001. No starter, bad on me. Is it possible that this was just an underpitched beer and the yeast croaked out too early, leaving all of these off flavors? If that seems like even a vaguely intelligent idea, I've got half a mind to brew up a 2L starter, get some 001 really eating, toss it into the beer and see what happens.

Anyone agree/disagree with me? Waste of good yeast?

Hydro readings? Taste it? I think you have a bit more diagnosis to do, (other than smelling), before you can make a determination.

Drink some, test some, and report back.

Well he said theres a green apple aroma/taste to the beer. I would start with a gravity measurement and report back. Even better would be to know the OG. Have you brewed in the last year? I couldn't live without one of my primarys for more than a few weeks!

patrck17 said:

Well he said theres a green apple aroma/taste to the beer. I would start with a gravity measurement and report back. Even better would be to know the OG. Have you brewed in the last year? I couldn't live without one of my primarys for more than a few weeks!

Click to expand...

My bad, missed the "taste". In that case, yeah, OG and FG please. If the FG is at a decent value, then more yeast is useless. If it still tastes like apple juice, either let it sit longer, or trash it.

I would say "very high gravity" plus no starter equals a high possibility of undesirable results. Strained yeast could definitely account for off flavors.

Not saying that is what happened, but it's one possible scenario. Try the beer again sometime with a starter, see if you get different results.

shortyjacobs said:

My bad, missed the "taste". In that case, yeah, OG and FG please. If the FG is at a decent value, then more yeast is useless. If it still tastes like apple juice, either let it sit longer, or trash it.

Click to expand...

It's also pretty unlikely after a year that the gravity's going to budge too much short of a super-attenuative yeast.

The beer is at 1.011. Looks like yeast may not help too much, unless I want something rather dry.

Before I measure, I mixed up a starter of champagne yeast. Worth trying to see if it clears up? I'm also considering just dry hopping the heck of it, chilling it down, and seeing how it tastes.

1.011 would be a waste of yeast, IMO. Champaign yeast might bring it lower, so what the heck, you made a starter already, go ahead and try it.

I threw in a 1L stater of Champagne yeast and a T of amylase, so we'll see what happens, I suppose!

No dice. The yeast didn't take. Guess it was already too low. I'm flip flopping between dry hopping it, crash cooling it and seeing what happens or just tossing it down the drain.

I wouldn't toss it if it has gotten better over time. I agree with the crash cooling though...

Unfortunately, I have a full kegerator and no place to crash cool.

If I let it sit for a few more months, should I (finally) pull it off the yeast?

I had a brown ale that tasted an smelled the same way.. Ended up dumping it. Aging it didn't help. Left it sit for about 2 months.

It's been sitting for at least 9-10 months by now, and it's certainly improved from then. I've got the carboy space available, I'll just let it sit a spell longer.