Wyeast 1728-Scottish Ale

ThreeDogsNE · May 5, 2012

I have my first batch with 1728 in the fermenter now, a Russian Imperial Stout (O.G. 1.103) from my club's Big Brew on Saturday 4/28. I pitched one fresh pack of 1728 then, and two outdated packs that I had planned to build up with for starters. I also reoxygenated at 24hrs, 2 l/min for 90 seconds. All week I had it at 62* in the fermentation fridge, and had a slowly puttering airlock with no krauzen at all. I was wondering if I should repitch. Well, I haven't taken a gravity reading, and decided to try turning up the temperature controller to 65* before thinking about repitching today. I'm glad I did. Today I have 3 inches of krauzen and a much busier airlock. Is 1728 that temperature sensitive? Is that the key to the krauzen mystery?

Genjin · May 5, 2012

That is really interesting. I was listening to a Session episode where they were interviewing the owner of Hair of the Dog brewery in Oregon. He brews very high gravity ales and the house yeast is 1728. He said that he chose it because it was very tolerant of temperature, gravity and had a clean profile. My uneducated guess is that it took longer because it is such a high gravity and the lower temperature. Even though this yeast is tolerant of low temperatures, it is my understanding that all ale yeasts work faster at higher temperatures.

Cellarbrau · May 5, 2012

So, to recap: Everyone doing 60/- and 70/-'s are reporting little krauesen and the IIPAs, Robust Porters and Barley wines are getting lots. Hmmmm....

ImperialAlchemist · May 5, 2012

1.090 OG 2 packs of 1728 with no krausen. There was a ton of movement in the carboy though.

bierhaus15 · May 5, 2012

I have a 60/- on tap now with wlp028 (same strain) and it put up a huge krausen when fermented at 58-62F. Usually it does nothing, so I was somewhat surprised.

siobhan · Oct 1, 2012

Well, I just used it for the first time. Wee Heavy style, 5gal batch, stepped starter. I don't know what the krausen looked like (bucket), but it fermented within hours and gave off gas like a rocket. It spewed a fine mist of my airlock solution into the air for 2 days. If I'd done a 5.5gal batch, it would have been all over the floor.

And I just transferred to secondary. It settled out into a firm cake (I stopped rocking the bucket about 5 days before), and I got all but 1/4 cup of beer off without disturbing it. I like this yeast!

awshepard · Jan 29, 2013

Late to the party, but I just brewed an NB Wee Heavy extract kit. Used a 1L (actually 650ml) starter with this yeast, hand-shaken for about 30 hours before pitching. OG ~1.090, 5 gallons in a 7.5 gallon bucket, ambient temp in the chamber ~61-62F. Took 24 hours to see airlock activity, but after 36 hours, had lots of wort in the airlock with a nice little "whistle" going on, and the lid was bulging up. Tape thermometer on the side says it's about 64-65 in the bucket. I swapped out the airlock which relieved some pressure. Will have to keep an eye on it til it quiets down, but it smells great!