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wyeast 1728 yeast experience

Doomtheflame

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Hi everyone quick question on my first experience with the yeast stated in the title.

I made a 2 l starter at 1.040 pithced the yeast and put on a magnetic stirplate. 12 hour later came to look at it and been a bit troubled since.

While spinning the liquid has littlte white clumps 1mm square in size spinning in the starter.

Wondering if anyone has had this experience with this yeast or is shot?

The reason i am a bit scared is that i might of pitched a little bit too warm liquid.

Thank you
 
I bottled my Strong Scotch Ale last week, as the first time I have used the Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale yeast.  I normally brew 2.5 gallon batches, which this is, so I didn't need to make a starter when using the smack-pack.  I wondered if I just hadn't been observant enough before, but this was the first time I have seen small white clumps of yeast swirling around my fermenter, while checking the thermometer strip on the side.  My fermentation was at 68 F (somewhat above room temperature).  The fermentation was a bit of a beast, reaching 76% attenuation in 2 days and finishing at 77%, despite mashing in a range from 155-158 F.  The wort was still cloudy after 3 weeks in the fermenter, but was clear after a 4th week.  At bottling, it tasted similar to a Scottish ale that I had at a pub the night before.

Have others had experiences to share from using this yeast?
 
I've used this yeast several times in my strong scotch ale and in scottish ales (which I've used it to create enough yeast for the strong scotch ale).  It is fairly highly flocculant, which accounts for the white yeast clumps you are seeing.  I usually ferment my strong scotch ale at 58F to 64F, starting low and raising the temperature as the fermentation progresses.  I finish after a couple of weeks with a rise in temperature to 68F to 70F to clean things up before cold crashing.  I've found it to be fairly clean and neutral in flavor, allowing the malty flavors to come out nicely.  If you are getting attenuation in the range of 75%+ you are doing fairly well with this yeast.  I typically average around 68% apparent attenuation, but then I'm also mashing at 156F to 158F for the scotch ale.

If you are seeing the small clumps in your starter, I would speed it up to break the clumps up just before pitching.  Keep temperatures low initially if you want to limit ester production.
 
I just used this yeast in an RIS.  I've found it to be a very strong fermenting yeast.  Very active and very quick to churn through the sugars.  If you don't have a fermentation chamber, then you have to be very diligent to keep the fermentation temperatures down where you want them.  If you rely on ambient temperatures only, I've found that this yeast will rise 6-8F above ambient very quickly.

I use it in beers that I want to be very malt forward.
 
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