Wyeast 1028, high gravity, quick start

Well, yeah, it was a repitch from the previous batch. But, when I collected the yeast, this one jar I used had a decent amount of trub in it. No, I'm not worried about that. But the thing is, the yeast slurry was mixed in with that trub in such a way that it was sort of hard to tell how much slurry was there.

I brewed an Imperial Stout on the low side of the gravity for style, at 1.086, but I wanted to make sure this was a large amount of yeast for this big beer. So, I made a 2 liter starter with that slurry only a few days after harvesting, then stepped it up to 4 liters. Decanted the liquid off and pitched it.

I went to check the beer about 3 hours after pitching and a big krauesen was already forming and the beer was fully active. Didn't have a huge head yet, but it was super active and starting up its head. Now, 5 hours in, it's got a huge krauesen.

I wasn't aiming to have a super fast start like that, just didn't want to risk a low count when I couldn't clearly see how much yeast was in there. Anyway, pretty crazy start. Wyeast 1028. First beer was the dry stout in my signature, then repitched to this RIS. Northdown for bittering, Cascade and EKGs for aroma/flavor. Looking forward to this one. Think RIS is maybe my favorite style.

Had to share with some geeks who will understand. Cheers!

I used the same yeast for my RIS. It started in 6 hours and blew off even with foam control drops, attenuating in 4 days. It's a beast!

Yeah, it's blowing off for me too. 21 liters of beer in a 25 liter demijohn and it's blowing off. Tasted great in the dry stout before this too.