Had an oldish WLP002 in the fridge and are trying to start it up to do a Smoked Porter.
Depending on the size of the yeast that I throw in the starter I tend to start it off small, in this case around 500ml before going to the full starter volume in the next step.
My suspicions were raised when my nose detected the acetal in the original yeast sample. I thought I'd do the first 500ml and see how it went. Sure enough big time green apples. My initial reaction was some trepidation in misreading this for acetobacter but there is not a trace of sourness in the starter and I know this yeast can throw acetaldehyde in some conditions, a fairly poor pitching amount with the requisit oxydation in a starter being pretty much the ideal environment for that.
So I've stepped it up to around 2L but what do you think. Am I just breeding a starter that's going to be prone to producing a lot of acetaldehyde in the main brew or will it be OK???
Depending on the size of the yeast that I throw in the starter I tend to start it off small, in this case around 500ml before going to the full starter volume in the next step.
My suspicions were raised when my nose detected the acetal in the original yeast sample. I thought I'd do the first 500ml and see how it went. Sure enough big time green apples. My initial reaction was some trepidation in misreading this for acetobacter but there is not a trace of sourness in the starter and I know this yeast can throw acetaldehyde in some conditions, a fairly poor pitching amount with the requisit oxydation in a starter being pretty much the ideal environment for that.
So I've stepped it up to around 2L but what do you think. Am I just breeding a starter that's going to be prone to producing a lot of acetaldehyde in the main brew or will it be OK???
