Long fermentation, or flocculation trouble?

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kanzimonson

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I'm having some trouble with a beer that won't clear in the carboy. There's so much yeast still floating around. I recently (July 25) brewed 11.75gal of English Mild split between two fermenters:

#1 - 6.5gal
OG - 1.047
pitched with Wyeast 1318 - London 2

#2 - 5.25gal
OG - 1.042 (obviously had a little miscalculation in the top-off, but no biggie)
pitched with Wyeast 1187 - Ringwood

Visible fermentation began on #1 just a few hours earlier than #2. Bubbling stopped on #1 after 5 days, and slowed significantly on #2.

I decided to rack both beers to glass after a week (Aug 1). As suspected, #1 was already getting quite clear while #2 still looked disgustingly tan and yeasty. No problem, I thought, it won't be long until #2 is finished. Both beers had a gravity of 1.007.

#1 became clear and still after just a day, but I decided to give it 6 days in the secondary and then bottle (Aug 7th). Today (Aug 12) #2 is still apparently busy with yeast activity. When I racked, #1 was already looking like a brown mild beer. But #2 is still khaki and hazy with yeast. There's a little bit of foam on the beer that changes a bit every day, but I find it really hard to believe there are some available fermentables in there.

Possible problems:
-Autolysis - But isn't that why I racked it in the first place? There was definitely some yeast left behind after racking.
-Infection - I guess it's possible (it would be my first) but I had pretty much identical sanitation procedures for every piece of equipment between the two batches here. Not to mention fermentation was active in less than 10 hours. Fermentation conditions have been identical as well. Any thoughts? Solutions?
 
Assuming your gravity has not changed, there's probably nothing to worry about. If you have a way to cold crash it that couldn't hurt. If not, I don't see why you couldn't just bottle it now.

I'd bottle and give the beer a few weeks to carb up and settle out. If your beer is still hazy you can put it into a cooler and cover with ice for a week or so. I've done that recently with an IPA and it seemed to do wonders for clearing. Turned out to be the nicest looking beer I've made yet.
 
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