Burton Ale Yeast WLP023

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GrizzlyBier

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I brewed a British IPA with the following ingredients:
24 lb Maris Otter
1 lb Crystal 60L
6 oz Chocolate Malt
3 oz Challenger (6%) 60 min
2 oz Challenger 15 min
1 oz Challenger 5 min
WLP023 in 2L starter 24 hours prior, pitched at 68F
Measured OG 1.064

Fermented at 67F for 3 weeks in conical fermenter. Kegged a week after that. Tried to harvest yeast to no avail. It seems to be mostly suspended in the beer after all that time chillin' in the fermenter. The beer is very cloudy (chunky is more like it). There's a clovey taste I'm not fond of and lots of fruity esters which are ok. Is clove one of the characteristics of this yeast?

I'm hoping the flavor will clean up a lot after the chunk finally settles out.
 
WLP023 is a POF- yeast, so shouldn't produce phenolic compounds like 4-VG which provides the clove you get in eg hefeweizen. So I'm afraid this sounds like contamination - you could always call it a saison?

However you would expect a Burton yeast to produce sulphur compounds, which may clear but which aren't clovey, but if you're sure about the clove thing then it's unlikely to clear.
 
I used this yeast for the first time recently in a low abv blonde ale, it had an absolute unit of a krausen and put off a horrific amount of sulfur: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/wlp023-burton-holy-sulfur-batman.661510/. I'm surprised you weren't able to harvest since the krausen took up almost 3 gallons of headspace in my fermenter (thank God I used my 6.5gal bucket instead of the 5gal carboy for my 3.5gal batch).

Kegged that beer up a few days ago but haven't had a chance to taste yet. Will pull a sample later this week.
 
WLP023 is a POF- yeast, so shouldn't produce phenolic compounds like 4-VG which provides the clove you get in eg hefeweizen. So I'm afraid this sounds like contamination - you could always call it a saison?

However you would expect a Burton yeast to produce sulphur compounds, which may clear but which aren't clovey, but if you're sure about the clove thing then it's unlikely to clear.

I definitely smelled the sulfur during fermentation. What is a POF yeast?
 
POF+ is Phenolic Off-Flavour positive, it has a DNA package that converts ferulic acid in certain grists into 4-VG, the clove flavour that's typical of hefeweizen and more generally of "Belgianness".

Typicaly brewery yeast are POF- so don't have that genetic package.
 
I used this yeast for the first time recently in a low abv blonde ale, it had an absolute unit of a krausen and put off a horrific amount of sulfur: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/wlp023-burton-holy-sulfur-batman.661510/. I'm surprised you weren't able to harvest since the krausen took up almost 3 gallons of headspace in my fermenter (thank God I used my 6.5gal bucket instead of the 5gal carboy for my 3.5gal batch).

Kegged that beer up a few days ago but haven't had a chance to taste yet. Will pull a sample later this week.

Would love to hear how it tasted!
 
Would love to hear how it tasted!

To follow up on this thread, the blonde ale I made using this yeast turned out superb. There is still a hint of sulfur, but it's mostly relegated to the aroma and not the flavor of the beer. I've off-gassed the keg a few times in hopes of dissipating it even more. It did mute the hops a little bit, and accentuate the malt, but this is a blonde not an IPA so I'm totally on board with that. I'll definitely be using this yeast again, maybe in an amber style next.

It's really really good, especially for a pretty basic blonde ale. I plan on using this yeast again for an amber/brown ale later this month.
 
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