I am pretty impressed with the Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale yeast so far. I have my fermentation chamber set at 50F for the first few days of fermentation with a gradual ramp up and have gotten nice active fermentation on my last two batches.
The first beer, a Scottish 60 came out very clean tasting with a lot of emphasis on the malt (if a bit thin right now). I pitched a packet into the batch without a starter (6 gal, OG: 1.034), a little light but it went fine.
I am hoping for similar results with a Wee Heavy (6 gal, OG:1.07) I just brewed utilizing about 200ml of thick slurry from the Scottish 60.
I am going to oak the WH and if both are tasting good after some cold conditioning time I am going to blend to get: (24) bottles of a Wee Heavy, (24) 80 Shilling, (24) 70 Shilling and (24) 60 Shilling.
I really like the idea of blending them. I know a lot of people re-pitch and do a 60/-, 70/-, 80/-, Wee Heavy progression, but I don’t think I could justify having four batches of very similar beer around.
I’m wondering if it wouldn’t help beef up the “thinness” of the 60/- as well.
BTW, 200 mL of thick slurry is a ton. Probably about double what you’d need for a 1.070 beer.
Yea, I was definitely on the lighter side of 200 ml, probably closer to 150ml but I wanted to pitch heavy with the lower fermentation temp. It’s a bit of an experiment.
Blending will be easy. I am going to bottle 24 from each keg, transfer 12 beers worth (measured by weight) from the WH to the 60, mix keg thoroughly, transfer 12 worth of the mix over to the WH. Let it settle for a few days then bottle from those kegs.
I’m not a big Scottish ale fan so this will be a way to have a variety around for a while.
I’ve also used this yeast a number of times at lower temperatures. With the speed of fermentation, the low temperatures you can ferment it at and the fermentation aroma I find it to be very similar to Chico yeast. Maybe this is Chico yeasts true origin.