Krausen forming on one side of primary?

This is my third batch of beer ever and the first batch I've done at my house so I am still very new to brewing. The other batches were at a friends house in his basement and I think temp. may have something to do with this question.
The room I have the primary in is about 72 degrees and the primary itself is submerged in water with ice added as needed to keep the carboy around 66 degrees. Krausen has started forming on one side of the carboy. I mean it's almost dead on if you split the carboy in half. The side without the krausen is more active than the side with it. I have rotated the carboy 180 degrees and the krausen starts to break up and will eventually form on the side that previously hadn't had any.

Any ideas on this or should I even concern myself with rotating it at all?

I can post a pic if you guys need to see it.

Just not real sure what's causing it or if I should even worry about it. Fermentation is going great so...... what do you guys think?

Thanks!

sounds like the carboy is on an uneven surface, as if when you rotate it, everything just shifts over. Other than that, I have never seen what you're describing. Post a pic for the hell of it.

Any chance it's slightly warmer on that side.... light source or something?

You are dealing with living microorganisms....which means they are unpredictable, there could be any number of reasons why they started building their house starting on one side as opposed the matter...and the reasons are all normal...

When adding yeast you are adding a wildcard...think of the yeasties as teenagers or swmbos...wildly unpredictable....It's mother nature, and she's a fickle b***h!

It could be slightly warmer on one side of the carboy than the other (even 1 degree- it might not be much to us, but to a microrganism 1 degree could = 10 or 100 to them)

You could put two carboys side by side, with a split batch....and add the same yeast to them..and one may behave slightly different than the other...or vastly different.

It really means nothing...they no what they are doing..they are still chewing up the sugar water and peeing alcohol and farting CO2....eventually the krausen will grow and cover the entire carboy...or it wont...

But it will still make beer...

Just leave it alone...don't try to "fix" it..because there is really nothing wrong to the yeasts.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll get a pic of the krausen for you when I get home today. That side may be cooler. I haven't checked it but since it isn't fully submerged it could be ambient air I guess. That side is near an outer wall of my house and the side without krausen is on the inner side.

Revvy said:

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Unless he has multiple strains in there, isn't it "yeast"?

You just never know what the those guys are doing. This brew turned out great.

joety said:

Unless he has multiple strains in there, isn't it "yeast"?

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Yeah..well I now I have taken to calling em Yeasties, since I made the sign, so sue me...

Grinder12000 said:

You just never know what the those guys are doing. This brew turned out great.

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Okay...that HAS to be the coolest one I have ever seen!! Did that one ever go full Krausen, or did it stay looking like a submerged volcano?

And didja notice how it formed closest to the glass on the side where the carboys touched? I bet it was drawn to the slightly warner side from the exothermic heat being put out during fermentation.

It's a horrible pic from my cell but i think the beer is fine. The fermentation has been going strong since Sunday morning.