Plenty of krausen, no airlock activity

It's been fermenting for almost two days and my second batch of beer has only, so far, have a lot of foamy krausen. My first batch had the krausen blowing out of the airlock and after I cleaned out the airlock, there was plenty of bubbling for a couple days.

I'm not too worried about it, but could it be that the lid for my bucket fermenter has a leak? Should I put it in the seconday this weekend in case there's something wrong with the primary?

This is a steam beer extract kit I bought at the local brew shop with a lager yeast. It's about 60-65 in the basement where I keep it.

If the lid isn't leaking,it's because of the low ferment temps. Should be fine with the lager yeast though. Lower end of the yeasts' temp range is what can keep blow offs or lots of bubbling from happening. No worries.

It just means that there isn't a perfect seal on your primary, no worries your fermentation is putting out enough co2 to blanket your beer. I wouldn't rack yet.

bchurch said:

It just means that there isn't a perfect seal on your primary, no worries your fermentation is putting out enough co2 to blanket your beer. I wouldn't rack yet.

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I agree with this fellow...

You have a small leak and there is no reason for worries.

The chances that something would get in is so slight as not to be measueable... assuming you house is not a microb-factory.

I know people who do "open fermentation", I am not brave enough but I don't worry about a small leak.

I have even tossed a clean, Star-San towel over a bucket lid with out a airlock and had no problems...

Your bucket is leaking CO2. I wouldn't worry about it. If you're getting krausen, then the yeast are producing CO2. It's just not coming out the airlock.

It's not always a leak causing lack of airlock activity. Many times,lower ferment temps slow the yeast down enough to stop the beersuvious bit from happening. But it'll ferment cleaner...just a bit slower. Lid leaks are rarely the culprit. but not to be discounted 100% either.

True, could also be the low temperatures but either way my point is not to worry.

Indeed. Lagers are slow fermenters because of the temps being lower than ales. Not to mention taking longer to get good beer with the process additions.

Randomnoob said:

This is a steam beer extract kit I bought at the local brew shop with a lager yeast. It's about 60-65 in the basement where I keep it.

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1st don't worry about airlock activity as it varies from batch to batch
2nd what is the yeast you used? You said lager yeast! If so is the temp a bit on the high side? It should be around 50/51f

OhCrap said:

2nd what is the yeast you used? You said lager yeast! If so is the temp a bit on the high side? It should be around 50/51f

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It's a steam beer, i.e. lager yeast at ale temps

unionrdr said:

It's not always a leak causing lack of airlock activity. Many times,lower ferment temps slow the yeast down enough to stop the beersuvious bit from happening. But it'll ferment cleaner...just a bit slower. Lid leaks are rarely the culprit. but not to be discounted 100% either.

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lower ferment temps aren't the issue if it's lager yeast in the 60s.

sounds like a leak or its just nearly done. sometimes krausen sticks around even without much on-going activity

He mentioned wanting to brew a steam beer.

Right, which like I said is a lager yeast at ale temps, thus low temp clearly isn't the issue

Yup. The temp is ok for the brew he's doing. I still think the low temp is preventing the big blow off. That's been my experience.

I checked it during my lunch and it turns out part of the lid wasn't on all the way, but that's probably just been since this morning when I took a peak inside and saw the krausen.