Burton Ale Yeast WLP023 - Big disappointment

[bolus14]

I can keep it in the low 60's without much of a problem. My basement floor stays at 60 then with a swamp cooler I have pretty good luck keeping temps below 65. Controlling around 70 gets to be tricky.

 

[bolus14]

I can keep it in the low 60's without much of a problem. My basement floor stays at 60 then with a swamp cooler I have pretty good luck keeping temps below 65. Controlling around 70 gets to be tricky.

So the Imperial Stout has been fermenting for a little over 4 days now. Yesterday I had to clean the airlock and put a blowoff on, when I checked in the morning the lid was off on one side and airlock was full, temp was at 65. She push only a little bit of krausen into the blowoff tube through the rest of the day. This morning it looked like it was slowing down enough to put the airlock back in, so if nothing changes I'll do that tonight as well as try to get the temp up a coupled degrees so it doesn't stall.

This is my third time using this yeast and twice it has blown the lid off, so I would encourage to just start with a blowoff. I had a couple gallons of headspace both times so it seems to be a pretty aggressive strain once it gets going, it took 3-4 days both times.

 

[bolus14]

Just some insight on the second beer I made with this yeast, the Graf. There's definitely some tart/green apple aroma, not as strong taste wise but still present.

This beer is also cloudy and seems to be staying that way. The first beer, the Nugget hopped one, is still cloudy even after the bottles have been in the fridge for at least a few weeks. White Labs states this as being a medium flocculating strain, but from what I'm seeing there's no doubt I would call it low.

The stout is still going, went pretty strong for 4-5 days then slowed down. It's still showing an airlock bubble about every 5-10 seconds though. Pretty funky smells coming from the airlock on this brew, didn't get that from the first two. I did peak in to see if the Krausen had dropped and from what I could see it had in all but one small spot.

It'll be another 3-4 weeks before I bottle this one, from there I'll likely sample them somewhat slowly. Being a 10% ABV it should get better with some aging.

 

[Mutant]

Ten days ago, I brewed 12 gallons of the same SRM 8, IBU 55, OG 1.071 for a 'British Strong Ale' and split it up into three 5-gallon kegs. I normally had only used WLP022 for this recipe, but given it is a seasonal yeast I decided to test WLP005, WLP013, and WLP023. WLP005 hit FG 1.015, and the other overshot that and ended up at 1.012 or 1.013. I can't say much negative about any of these three yeasts and wish I had a WLP022 to compare them to. Each is unique in its own way, and all fit the bill for a 'British Strong Ale' (other than overshooting the FG). My only regret is that I had planned on incorporating a bit of flaked barley and forgot. The base was mostly a combo of Maris Otter and Simpson Golden Promise, with some minor additions. Hops were Target, EKG, and Challenger. I've barely consumed 20 oz from these and am ready to pump out another 12 (or more) gallons. The difficult choice is choosing the yeast or yeasts to use.