Why no krausen after the first day of primary fermentation?

[sigma77]

Hi everyone,

This is the first time I ever tried a hand at brewing. I respected the instructions of my beer kit (objective: Amber Belgian) in terms of quantities and temperatures, and have been storing the glass demijohn between 17°C and 21°C. When I pitched my yeast the wort was at 21°C, and for the first couple hours about 1cm of krausen did develop inside the demijohn (see pic, left). Since then it's been five days and there's no foam to be seen. However I think something is still happening (albeit very slowly) because I get a bubble every 20-70 seconds (stayed within this range over the past five days) and the surface does show tiny bubbles (see pic, right) keep coming up at a slow rate. There's also a good 2cm of gunk at the bottom of the demijohn (dead yeast?) and the colour has become lighter (but still completely opaque). The recipe said 3 weeks primary & 2 weeks bottle fermentation, is it at all possible that the peak has passed so quickly? Is this normal?

The picture shows three photos, left to right: Day 0, Day 3, Day 5 (right now).

I'm guessing one of the following could be the issue:
1- I shouldn't have pitched the dry yeast directly into the wort (I keep reading about making starters?)
2- I should have shaken the wort more vigorously after pitching the yeast (I barely moved it, it stayed floating on top)
3- Improper sanitation? (I had 1072 OG so I added unsanitized tap water to reach target 1055)
4- Fermentation over? (then where are these bubbles coming from?)
5- Yeast somehow died (hostile environment? chlorine in tap water? room temperature variation? too rapid growth/overpopulated and then starved? ...?)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Thanks in advance

 

[ACBEV]

I think for a first timer you've done a great job. I don't think you have a problem at all, looks like you have beer.

Whatever you do, don't fiddle with it... Leave for another week or two and then your good to bottle.

 

[Bubba Wade]

Sometimes yeast move quickly and sometimes they seem to crawl. I regularly pitch dry yeast directly into the wort without a problem. I think your batch will be fine.

 

[Nosybear]

Looking at Picture #2, at least at some point you had a krauesen. Some yeasts work so fast that you really don't get to see the krausen but the bathtub ring in your carboy is a dead giveaway. Yeast has been doing this job for humans for around 14,000 years, they know what they're doing. Your beer is fine.

 

[Craigerrr]

Ride the stationary bike, vacuum up that mess on the floor, brew another batch.... or find other things to do so you can ignore it for another week or two as noted above.
I agree with nosy, there is evidence that there was krauesen at some point.
The trub/yeast cake on the bottom is normal.
Good luck!

 

[Hogarthe]

First pic Looks like a good krausen. The other 2 look like what happens when the fermentation is winding down. Dry yeasts sometimes rip through the wort very quickly. I think you are just fine.

 

[Hatseflats]

Be more patient. It looks okay to me. Is there no lid on your airlock?

 

[Frothy James]

Try to keep it out of the light. I used to wrap a towel around it with a clothespin. Peeking is defiantly okay. Take a hydrometer sample and see if your yeast is doing it's thing. Tasting the sample is defiantly okay too. Fun stuff.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

It also looks like that is less than 1 gallon. Did you pitch an 11 gram packet of yeast into it? If so, that would explain the quick fermentation.
Congratulations, you made Beer!
Cheers,
Brian