I made a British Special Bitter with a very simple grain bill - maris otter and a little crystal. I used WLP002 pitched from a healthy starter. If anything, I OVER pitched a little. Fermentation was normal at 65-67 degrees. Time from pitch to bottle was 5 week - all of it in the primary. FG was right about what was predicted.
The beer is very clear, has decent CO2 and the head is nice. It has always had, however, have a strong yeast taste - from the first bottle opened 2 weeks after bottling to now, 2 months after bottling. Not nice fruity - estery way but yeast as in the taste of yeasty bread. I don’t like it at all.
Wlp002 is a very flocculant yeast strain. In my experience I regularly had problems keeping it in suspension during fermentation. As far as over pitching is concerned I have run tests where I over pitched yeast to about 150% and the beer did not taste “yeasty”.
What kind of container are you using for fermentation and how are you cleaning it?
Are you pitching your entire starter or do you decant ?
You could cut your fermentation time down to three weeks and incorporate a diacetyl rest, but 5 weeks is fine.
You could also cold crash your beer to 40 degrees for 2-3 days prior to conditioning.
I would suggest adding gelatin to clear it providing your not harvesting the yeast or bottle conditioning.
The fact is with Wlp002 and what you described so far you shouldn’t have a yeast taste.
by cam0083 on Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:21 pm
I feel like it never hurts to state the obvious just in case so here goes:
You say your beer tastes too yeasty from the bottle. I have run across homebrewers (and was one at one point) who drank or poured the entire bottle of beer, including the little whitish yeast layer coating. A few bottles in when someone taught me how to correctly pour a homebrew I found it much better tasting after leaving out that layer of yeast at the bottom of the bottle.
