I'm thinking about the consequences of taking my Scottish ale yeast into a sweeter style stout. I'm leaning towards an oatmeal stout, but considering a sweet stout as well. Wyeast doesn't encourage it on their website and they'd probably get angry if I threatened to oak the beer too. Does anyone have any experience with using Wyeast's Scottish ale yeast in a sweeter stout, or has anyone ever oaked a sweeter stout?
I've made a couple of good porters with WY1728. You'll get all the sweetness you want if you mash for it. 1728 is a great all purpose yeast if you write your recipes with it in mind.
On a sidenote, is there a way to get it to dry up a little more? I wonder if it would work for an ESB or the like.
There's a police for every aspect of brewing. Big brother is everywhere! Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts...
Mash low, go easy on the crystal, maybe add a little sugar. I've gotten ~80% attenuation by mashing at 150F and not using crystal (and fermenting a bit warmer, 68F). That's more than you need for an ESB.
I've used this strain twice - once in a stout, once in a brown. I was at the low end (<60) of the range for ferment temps, and both times I had low attenuation. Judging by the specs, this is probably common, as it is a fairly low attenuating strain to begin with. Which means, if you want a sweeter, fuller-bodied stout, this strain will serve you nicely, especially at lower temps. So much so that you probably don't want to add any unfermentables, and probably don't want to mash too high if you use this and ferment around 60.
