Too Much Yeast! Help!!

[BucketCityBrew]

I recently made two 30 gallon batches of Cream Ale and Dark Porter.

We pitched 6 yeast packets per batch.

After 7 days we racked and kegged the beer. Upon applying to the tape we noticed both beers were quite "murky" and had a very yeasty taste.

Why is this?????

Are we using too much yeast? Are we not fermenting long enough?

Help!

 

[Yooper]

I'm guessing that you didn't let it sit long enough for the yeast to flocculate.

What kind of yeast did you use, and at what temperature did you ferment?

 

[HVBrewtality]

Yea, If you want all of the yeast to drop out of suspension you need to give it some time!

 

[Chad]

Seven days is pretty fast. Your fermentation might be done but the yeast still need to clean up after themselves, reduce any diacetyl that might have been produced, and flocculate out of suspension. You certainly didn't use too much yeast for that volume of beer, you just didn't let it work long enough.

What you can do is consider your kegs secondary or bright tanks. Let the beer condition at or near fermentation temperature for another week or two. It sounds like there is plenty of yeast still in suspension to get the job done. Leave it alone for, say, two weeks then refrigerate the kegs, if possible. That will encourage the yeast to drop clear. Then rack to another set of kegs, leaving the settled yeast behind.

By the way, what yeast did you use? Some strains -- Kolsch yeast, for example -- are very low flocculating, meaning that they take a long time to drop clear. Others, like most British ale strains, clump together and drop out just as fermentation is finishing.

Chad