Thoughts on Wyeast 1728 temp change mid fermentation

So I am 2 and a half days in on primary fermentation for my Scottish Ale using Wyeast 1728 and my temp has been fairly steady at around 71-71 degrees. Since yesterday I have been reading up on this particular type of yeast and I wanted everyones thoughts on if gently placing the carboy in a large bucket of chilled water to bring the temp down to 65 degrees would be beneficial at all. And by this I mean lower the esters a bit. I like some but don't want it to be over powering.

Also, how steady dose the temp hold having the carboy in a large bucket of chilled water. It would be 15 inches deep.

Thanks

It is definitely preferable to start at a lower temp and allow the temp to rise slowly if needed. Chilling could cause the fermentation to slow down or stop. I've fermented with this yeast at 57 degrees for a few days and then let it rise a few degrees - it can handle cool temps, but dropping down can be risky. Placing the fermenter in chilled water could drop the temp rapidly which is more likely to cause a problem. A gentler method might be a wet towel/t-shirt over the carboy with a fan blowing on it.

I also wonder if the ester level isn't pretty well set already, assuming you've had 2 days of active fermentation.

I will have to experiment with this recipe at cooler temps in the future. I normally read up a lot on yeast beyond there directions but in this case just made sure the temps were 3-5 degrees below the max since it had a good range. I am sure the beer will taste great and it will be fun to see what the other end of the spectrum will be like.

I would leave it where it is now, but in the future I think it's better to start cool and warm up. If you cool off a yeast that's been warm, it may drop out early on you. Especially high flocculators like british and scottish yeasts.