Airlock bubbling, no Krausen

This is my pumpkin stout I brewed a couple days ago. Right now I'm getting about 1 bubble a second and still no Krausen. It's sitting in the mid 60s. I used rehydrated us-05.

My worry is that the airlock was having problems staying on. When I pitched the yeast and put in the airlock it wouldn't stay in so I taped it down and checked back a few hours later and it had popped off. Any chance something wild dropped in or maybe fermentation isn't fully kicked off yet. It's been bubbling like this since yesterday.

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What's all of that on the top if it isn't krausen?

I've had the bung pop off a couple of times, you should be fine. The secret is to dry it first if you're using Star San. It can be slippery. Or use rubbing alcohol or vodka to sanitize it, both of which will give a nice tackiness to it causing it to stick nicely.

Not all beers will produce thick, foamy krausen. It can be a recipe you've made before, same grain bill, hops, yeast, etc., and it might react differently the second time versus the first.

There does seem to be a light layer of bubbles, as MagicMatt points out, on top of the beer. That's krausen, IMHO.

MagicMatt said:

What's all of that on the top if it isn't krausen?

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It looks more like yeast rafts.

This is my first time with this recipe. It has had that small "dusty" layer since before it started bubbling. This is my first time in nearly 40 batches without a thick krausen top.

Looks like Krausen to me. Not all Krausen is thick.
Did you fruit this with real pumpkin?

brrman said:

Looks like Krausen to me. Not all Krausen is thick.
Did you fruit this with real pumpkin?

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No just added flaked barley and spices. I have a pumpkin Belgian blonde that I add pumpkin to though.

I just bottled a Zombie Dust clone that was fermented with Safale S-04, and it's entire primary was vigorous with no krausen at all. The only indicators I had was airlock activity and seeing the wort swirling with little bubbles, not to mention that I could have passed out by taking a big deep breath of all the C02 it was blowing off in to the ferm chamber when I opened it. No krausen, no infection, no issues, hit in the ballpark of the FG I wanted.

So 9 days in and it's at 1.032 from 1.067. This is my second straight batch with us-05 that had problems. Eljefe is confused

Are you using a refractometer?

Hydrometer.

My digital thermometer broke and I've been using an analog one for the last few batches. I calibrated it the first time I used it but I'm wondering if maybe it got knocked outta whack l.

ElJefeBrews said:

Hydrometer.

My digital thermometer broke and I've been using an analog one for the last few batches. I calibrated it the first time I used it but I'm wondering if maybe it got knocked outta whack l.

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It may get lower. 9 days. I would expect an ale to be at or extremely close to FG by now.

This points to some sort of error in making the wort extremely unfermentable or yeast issues (less likely) or both.

I need to pick up another digital thermometer and see if that's the problem