How fast can a Krausen disappear?

I'm a complete newb to home brewing and this is my first post on the forum, though I've been lurking around for a couple weeks trying to educate myself on brewing

I had been talking about buying some beer brewing supplies when my brother gave me a Mr. Beer kit he got from a garage sale. My first thought was well, not what I was thinking when I wanted a kit, but it might be fun. None of the ingredients were expired, barely, but I went out and bought some new yeast just to be on the safe side.

I followed the directions relatively closely, cooled the wort down in some ice before adding it to the Mr. Beer fermenter, and pitched my yeast when it was dropped down to 85 F, and hand aerated with a sterilized spoon. Then it was stored in my basement where it has a constant 68F.

I used the West Coast Pale Ale from Mr. Beer with about 8g Nottinghams Brewers Yeast (a bit to much perhaps?)

I wasn't able to check on it for about 80 hours, and when I did I saw no Krausen, though shining a flashlight in through the plastic I could see a little patch of bubbles floating in the middle of the fermenter. 8hrs later. Still no change.

Cutting to the chase, could my Krausen have come and gone in that 1st 80 hrs? Or do I just need to re-pitch some different yeast? Or am I just having 1st home brew panic?

I want to open the top and check for more evidence, but I'm afraid my funky old basement might contaminate the batch.

Absolutely. That is a lot of yeast for the small Mr. Beer kit. That could have easily fermented out completely in 3 days... Especiially with the voracious Notty.. So, RDWHAHB! On the other side of the coin, you could make a Kolsch with Wyeast's Kolsch strain and find that it takes weeks for the krausen to go away.

They can come and go in 24 hours or linger for weeks. I don't think there's anything "normal" in brewing. Especially where krausens are conderned.

The amount of krausen can vary for whatever reason, it can come quick and depart quickly or it can linger long after fermentation is complete, and it all be normal.

There is nothing "typical" in brewing...every fermentation is different, and should not be used to compare one with another...you can't do that.

No two fermentations are ever exactly the same.

When we are dealing with living creatures, there is a wild card factor in play..Just like with other animals, including humans...No two behave the same.

You can split a batch in half put them in 2 identical carboys, and pitch equal amounts of yeast from the same starter...and have them act completely differently...for some reason on a subatomic level...think about it...yeasties are small...1 degree difference in temp to us, could be a 50 degree difference to them...one fermenter can be a couple degrees warmer because it's closer to a vent all the way across the room and the yeasties take off...

Someone, Grinder I think posted a pic once of 2 carboys touching each other, and one one of the carboys the krausen had formed only on the side that touched the other carboy...probably reacting to the heat of the first fermentation....but it was like symbiotic or something...

You may have had a rapid fermentation, or when you were installing the blowoff, you nudged the fermenter enough to shake it loose.

But I wouldn't worry, krausens are weird. For example, I had a wit beer that I pitched bottle harvested Hoegaarden that STILL had a 2" krausen on it three weeks later. I took a grav reading and it had reached terminal gravity, 1.010. So the beer was done, but the krausen still lingered. I finally gently swirled the beer to knock it down, and let it settle for another week before I bottled it. I'm not normally a fan of knocking them down, and usually let it do it naturally.

Well, I guess I'll just invest in a hydrometer (and maybe purchase a bigger beer kit along with it and see how things look in a few days.