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?
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?