Wlp023

I've had a few experiences with the Burton Ale yeast over the past few months, and overall was more or less nonplussed with it. Initially, I was intrigued by the allure of described apple and pear esters. But I never was quite able to make it work for me.

Recently, I made a six gallons of 1.040 Bitter in preparation for an Old Ale I was planning and decided to give WLP023 another try. I ended up getting really good attenuation and a pretty dry beer with pronounced bitterness. It came through a little thinner than I expected, but what really intrigued me was the ester profile. I couldn't quite place it -- I certainly didn't get apple or pear; truth be told, I didn't much care for it and I wrote it off for the first dozen bottles or so.

Then this evening, after a few rounds, I placed it: Pineapple. All this time I was searching for pear-fruit esters and finding something else. Once I identified what it was I was tasting (and addressed it not as a defect, but simply as something different), the beer totally clicked for me.

Here's the rub: Now I've only got a couple bottles left! Ain't it just the way that the last bottle always tastes the best. The Old Ale is coming along great though.

No real question or comment here. Just found there wasn't a whole lot about this yeast on the forum and wanted to chime in with my 2c. I've been on the prowl for an English yeast that I really love; and while this is not it, I will say it is distinctive and worth a glance.

Would be happy to hear others' experience with it.

Cheers!

I also brewed an ordinary bitter about 3 weeks ago and should be bottling this week, I will post tasting notes.

I brewed up an IPA yesterday and used Burton. That stuff is a raging beast!! I made a 1.5L starter and within 1 hour of pitching, the blowoff jar was bubbling away. When I got up this morning, the blowoff was filled with kreusen and it is constantly percolating. I am looking forward to tasting. I think this will be a fast fermentation.

I am going to do an american pale ale hop style with the burton yeast and like the OP, I picked it out because of the apple and pear desc. I just had a pineapple IPA and it was quite interesting. OP, what was your ferm temp? If I could pull a pineapple flavor out, that would be awesome.

ColumbusAmongus said:

OP, what was your ferm temp?

Click to expand...

I don't have my notes in front of me, but I suspect I kept the ambient temp in my cooler around 65F. I tend to hold ferm temps at the lower end of the suggested range, which in this case is 68-73F.

Good luck with the brew!

kmos said:

I don't have my notes in front of me, but I suspect I kept the ambient temp in my cooler around 65F. I tend to hold ferm temps at the lower end of the suggested range, which in this case is 68-73F.

Good luck with the brew!

Click to expand...

Ok thanks. It looks like I will be going at 68F (no temp control). The starter had a an interesting aroma. Definitely reminded me of green apple but a bit more complex with some funky fruity esters ( not unpleasant though). This seems like it would be a good cider yeast too. Hmm...it is about that time of year....

I did a Chinook IPA based on the Northern Brewer kit. Then a porter. And a smoked ale based on John Palmer's "Elevenses. I added .7 lb peat smoked malt. I am no good at describing flavors but they were all good. The best was the smoked ale, I called "Shire Ale".

I definitely like Burtons Ale yeast.

I have 5 gallons of an English IPA fermented with WLPL023. I'm going to keg it today. I'm terrible at describing flavors though.

I'm curious how long it took your beers to get down to FG with 023. This is the first time I've used it, and from everything I've read it seems to be a quick fermenting yeast.

I've had a porter fermenting at a steady 68º for a week now. It's in my basement and off the floor. My airlock activity dropped off after two days, so I went to take a gravity reading earlier tonight and discovered that there's still a good 2-3 inches of krausen on top.

I'm wondering if fermentation is getting dragged out by the temperature being too low. White Labs' site says its optimal fermenting temperatures are 68º-73º.

I am worried that the vial I got was bad. It could have also been my DME starter. I was going to make a 12 gallon Geary's Pale Ale clone and split it with the Burton and the WLP01?(California). But the starter smelled sour, and after a day, had not taken off on the stir plate. I'll just do a 6 gallon batch with the California tomorrow and try other vial of Burton I have when I get back from holidays.

Definitely unique, I enjoyed the fruitiness and got a bit of honey from it last time I used it, but didn't care for the dry mineral taste it finished with. Lots of people that tried that batch loved it though so only way to tell is to give it a go.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

gestyr said:

I brewed up an IPA yesterday and used Burton. That stuff is a raging beast!! I made a 1.5L starter and within 1 hour of pitching, the blowoff jar was bubbling away. When I got up this morning, the blowoff was filled with kreusen and it is constantly percolating. I am looking forward to tasting. I think this will be a fast fermentation.

Click to expand...

I didn't want to create a new threat, but I am not happy with the WLP023 I've gotten from my supplier. The first vial was very, very sour, and I had no activity on the stir plate. I ditched it and used a jar of 001 that I had in the refrigerator.

Hopeful for this vial, I made the starter, and pitched in about 24 hours ago. No activity. I'm willing to give it another 24 hours, but there's just no life to it. I've had other yeasts that have gone crazy...saison, california, kolsch, but this one just seems dead.

Frustrated!

I know this is an old thread and when looking up experiences with WLP023 it hasn't seem to get much of a following, so I wanted to share what I have seen so far in case otehrs go looking for info.

I didnt have time to make a starter, so pitched right from the new white labs packaging, the white plastic tubes, not the clear ones with the black cap. The date on the packaging put it at 2 months old. I pitched at 66 degrees, the next morning temp strip on the bucket was at 70, I out the fermenter into a swamp cooler and within 10 hours it was at 65. Let is raise to 68 and keep swapping out ice bottles to keep it there.

At 24 hours - no real signs of fermentation.
At 48 hours - no real signs, maybe a dime sized pocket of small bubbles on top of the wort.
At 72 hours - wort looking noticably cloudy and more small bubbles on top
At 84 hours - side of the lid blown off and air lock full of yeast and wort, thankfully the whole lid didn't come off... Now just hoping no critters, like spiders, or some wild yeast got into it. The lid was still on most of the fermenter, just lifted off about an inch and a half on one side.

The smell of the wort fermenting is probably the least offensive I've ever noticed, this is a fairly straight forward Amber.