Trub thick vs. thin, interesting comparison

[RickBeer]

A month or so ago I brewed two wheat beers (see below for ingredients). One was a base for a fruit beer, the other was a Blue Moon clone. I cold crashed each for 24 hours to get the trub to compact, but not have the beer clear. I was surprised at the difference in the trub thickness - the fruit wheat base was very liquidy and flowed easily, the Blue Moon trub was thick like most other brews I make. Both were fermented at the same temp. To me, the Fruit Wheat with the Oatmeal should have been much thicker and wasn't. So the question is either what made the Blue Moon thicker or what made the Fruit Wheat thinner. I care because I got 610 oz of Blue Moon but only 566 ounces of Fruit Wheat beer. Both were fermented at the same temp. All grains were steeped.

Blue Moon:

7.2 lbs of wheat LME
0.5 lbs of Crystal 10
0.5 lbs of Carapils
1/2 oz of sweet orange peel
1/2 oz of cracked coriander
1 oz of Hallertau
S-05 yeast.

Fruit Wheat:

6 lbs of wheat LME
0.5 lbs of Torrified wheat
0.5 lbs of Flaked Oats
0.25 lbs of Crystal 10
1 oz of Willamette
S-05 yeast

[Kealia]

I have no clue as I would have thought the yeast would have been the biggest factor but you used the same one in both.
Count me as interested in this discussion.

[Dawg LB Steve]

My two cents, more Wheat LME in the Blue Moon by 1.2 lbs, more proteins and solids to drop out of suspension.

[mashani]

Did you add actual fruit to the fruit wheat at some point? If so, that could be it. If not, what Dawg said sounds like a possibility.

Either way, next time you could use Nottingham at low temps (57-62) and it will give you just as clean a beer as S-05, but form a much more dense/gelatinous trub and pull more stuff out of suspension.

[RickBeer]

Fruit is going to be added at time of pouring a bottle.

[BlackDuck]

I'm with Dawg on this one too...more malt = more junk to drop out.