White Labs Burton Ale Yeast - Powdery/Haze?

[Paul O' North]

In an attempt to rectify a clarity problem, I am wanting some input from brewers who have used White Labs' Burton Ale Yeast in the past. I find this to be an extraordinary yeast in all aspects - ferments out very well (recently, brewed a barleywine OG = 22.6 to FG 4.5 in 5 days), great, bouncy esters everywhere (my preference), etc. But I am having a beer clarity problem. I have posted elsewhere on this (see, process/techniques thread, mashing out re: Maris Otter). I have never had a clarity problem in the past, and am wondering if others using this yeast have found it to be inordinately powdery? I am not ruling out other things - I do use flaked barley in my bitters, and all the beers of this trial series have been dry hopped (most, fairly aggressively so), still, if any have info on this yeast and its haze-throwing propensity, it would be appreciated. Thanks.

Paul

[zbrew2k]

I have used the Burton Ale Yeast from White labs, and it dropped out like a rock after reaching the end gravity.

Use yeast nutrient, the (Zn) in it is the most important ingredient. The Servomyces brand has the most Zn of the brands available.

The yeast nutrient will help your yeast settle better. Settling depends on your water chemistry also (residual alkalinity).

Can you get your fermentor or conditoner to 32° F? A round bottom tank would help your settling. If you are setlling in a cylindro-conical tank, harvest the yeast as much as possible before filtration. That will also help your settling efforts.

Backing up a step, is there any point in your mashing or transfer process where the mash gets whipped or beaten by and agitator or transfer pump? Has transfer time increased lately?

Good Luck,
B

[Paul O' North]

B -

Thank you very much, as I feared, I think it must be something in my mash/lauter/cellar regimen. I had heard this yeast is a great top cropper, so was not really confident it was a yeast thing.