Krausen Lack there of

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BaylessBrewer

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I brewed a chocolate milk stout yesterday and poured the chilled wort between two buckets6-8 times to aerate and pitched 2 packs of us-05 rehydrated at 11am. Now 28 hours later it's fermenting away but there is no signs of a krausen what so ever. Nothing. What causes this?
 
chickypad said:
Pic?
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It's in a bucket so I'll have to try to get a picture through the airlock hole. I don't want to take the lid off at this time.
I noticed the lack of a krausen yesterday when I went down to check on it and shined a flashlight on it to see where the level was in the bucket and was surprised to see it in the same spot as when I pitched my yeast.
I'm not sure what's going on. Airlock smells sweet and roastie so........?
 
It sounds like it's still making beer... So obligatory: relax and have a homebrew. There's always gravity reading too.

Now that the standard annoying hbt answers that don't really answer your question are out of the way...

What's your water like? There's nothing in your recipe that looks suspect to me.
 
Generic report on the water company website is this:View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448197472.775139.jpg
So that's what I go off of and I use Brewers Friend water calculator for water profile and have never had a problem.
I added 1/4 tab of Campden to my water before mashing. Mashed 60min and then added 1 tsp Calcium Chloride to the boil kettle. I BIAB but I do like to rinse the grains and that's with Campden treated tap water.
Boil was standard boil. Used 12 drops of fermcap at the beginning of hot break. Added the lactose @ 30min, 1tsp yeast nutrient and 1tsp Irish moss along with 1.5oz Cocoa nibs @ 10min. Chiller was added @ 15 and it took maybe 15 min to get the wort from boil to 62*f.
 
I suspect the high level of activity in your wort is keeping the krausen from building. I have noticed the same thing. Strong airlock activity with little height to the krausen layer. Couple days later a healthy two inch thick krausen.
 
Now has about 1-1 1/2" krausen and it's still bubbling 45-50 bubbles a min.
Just a different fermentation than I'm used to I guess. Beer is in the future! [emoji2]
 
Update:
Got home from work yesterday and all airlock activity had stopped. So I pulled the airlock and peeked inside. Clear black beer. The yeast had flocked out and nothing was happening.
So I went down after dinner and took a hydrometer sample. I got a reading of 1.038. Not even close to where I want to be. It started @ 1.075 and I would like to see 1.025. Not sure how much further it will go but I'll check it again Friday. That will be 7 days since pitching yeast and hopefully my numbers are down in the .020's
 
Update #2:
Checked gravity again today and it's still @ 1.038. [emoji30]
Roused the yeast and added 1.5tsp Amylase Enzyme and said a prayer.
 
No luck from the Amylase Enzyme. Still at 1.038
So I added 1 1/4tsp yeast energizer and pitched a 500ml high krausen starter of us-05.
I know starters for dry yeast are frowned upon but I'm at the end of my sanity with this one.
Is there anything else I can do?? Help me! I don't want to dump this beer out.
 
slym2none said:
I wouldn't dump it just because it finished early...

:(
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I don't want to trust me. But I'm not so sure I can drink 5gal of sweet beer. If I can get it down to 1.028 or lower I'll feel better. As it stands I only got 48% attenuation. Something isn't right.
 
So after just over 2 weeks the Gravity was and is stopped at 1.032. Sucks but it looks like that's the hand I was dealt on this beer so I added the cocoa nibs/vanilla beans that had been soaking in bourbon for the last couple weeks and kegged it.
I'll let you know how it tasted in a week or two. I'm a little bummed out and don't have high hopes although it did smell like a roasted dark chocolate bar if that's a smell you can imagine.
 
You could try Beano.. It is a bit of a nuclear option and would rule out bottling, but in the keg, you could try half a crushed tab and try it by taste every week until it hit your dryness target (sweet spot).
 
MrFancyPlants said:
You could try Beano.. It is a bit of a nuclear option and would rule out bottling, but in the keg, you could try half a crushed tab and try it by taste every week until it hit your dryness target (sweet spot).
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Would it still work being that the beer is in the keg with the gas and tap hooked up? Will I have to let it warm to room temp?
I've not had this problem before.
 
BaylessBrewer said:
Would it still work being that the beer is in the keg with the gas and tap hooked up? Will I have to let it warm to room temp?
I've not had this problem before.
Click to expand...

I have used 1.2 tab at at room temperature in the past and it took a couple weeks for the gravity to start dropping, but I believe chilled, it would still work just slower. The optimal temperature for the enzyme is up around mashing temperatures, but like the amylase it does work at lower temperatures.

Hmm, thinking this through a little more, you would need to bring the temp up to at least the range that your yeast was working at if you want to convert those newly cleaved simple sugars over to alcohol.
 

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