WLP028 - crazy apple taste?

So I made three beers in a row with WLP028, which lots of people seem to like. First a Dead Guy Clone, which I fermented at 62, then an IPA fermented at 65, then a Red Mild fermented at 68.

I thought this was supposed to be a clean yeast, but both the Dead Guy clone and the Mild taste super strongly of apples. It's not the "green apple" acetaldehyde flavor; it's more like red apples. With the low carbonation, if you close your eyes the Mild tastes almost like apple juice. Honestly, it's kind of gross. I fermented high on purpose to get some nice esters, but jeez.

The IPA tastes good, but it's got a ton of hops in it. Oh, and I definitely pitched the proper amount of yeast, oxygentated, etc.

I know people have had lots of success with this yeast, and that people usually call it "clean," but has anyone else had this problem?

I had this problem once as a result of adding too much sugar...while this may not be what happened in your case, in mine it did give me that "apple juice flavor"...I only realized it as I was cleaning up and noticed I had accidentally screwed up my measurements and increased my sugar addition.

I used 028 on a 80/- and it had a strong apple taste and smell when I bottled it. It was gone 3 weeks later.

Just fermented a low hop brown ale with WLP028 at 66F and never noticed any apple... certainly getting some smokiness, but no apple. Hmm...

I was about to chime in with the exact same experience, but then I realized I had used WLP029 Kolsch. Ironically, there are threads around here a lot about "apple/green apple" and you see a variety of yeasts mentioned. Also, for the ones I've done, extra time in the fermentor did NOT clear it up.