Interesting fermentation. Thoughts?

[NordeastBrewer77]

ok, i'll start from the beginning; this past weekend we decided to rebrew my wife's recipe for n. english brown as a partial mash. everything went pretty well, we forgot to adjust the efficiency in her copy of BrewPal to 78% (i've been getting 75-80% with BIAB, so i have mine set to 78%), we overshot the gravity by a few points but i'm not complaining about the higher efficiency. i topped it up to hit the target OG. i did notice as i was aerating, that it didn't whip up the froth that it normally does. anyhow, i pitched a 2L starter of 1098 and set it in the swamp cooler at 59 degrees. had krausen forming a few hours later and by bedtime it was up and running and i was continually adding ice bottles to keep it at ~60. next day every things great, today, same thing but when it started to slow a bit (based on visual, i'm using a glass carboy so i can see the activity) i began raising the temps up a bit. (it's at 63-64 now) now with any brew i've witnessed, as it starts to slow down, the krausen falls back, but this one dropped like a brick. there, then a couple hours later, gone. the thing that's got me wondering is, now there's very little krausen but the beer's still very active. lots of bubbling and swirling in the carboy, it's trying to go up in temp so i'm still needing to add ice from time to time to keep in around 63 or so. i've brewed a lot of beer, and seen some odd things during a ferment, but i've never seen a beer that's this active have almost no krausen.
i know, right, RDWHAHB, step away from the carboy and chill. i'm not really worried, so much as perplexed. wondering if anyone else has seen something like this or if any of you have any thoughts on this?

 

[Brulosopher]

Happens to some of my brews. No biggie.

 

[Stauffbier]

ok, i'll start from the beginning; this past weekend we decided to rebrew my wife's recipe for n. english brown as a partial mash. everything went pretty well, we forgot to adjust the efficiency in her copy of BrewPal to 78% (i've been getting 75-80% with BIAB, so i have mine set to 78%), we overshot the gravity by a few points but i'm not complaining about the higher efficiency. i topped it up to hit the target OG. i did notice as i was aerating, that it didn't whip up the froth that it normally does. anyhow, i pitched a 2L starter of 1098 and set it in the swamp cooler at 59 degrees. had krausen forming a few hours later and by bedtime it was up and running and i was continually adding ice bottles to keep it at ~60. next day every things great, today, same thing but when it started to slow a bit (based on visual, i'm using a glass carboy so i can see the activity) i began raising the temps up a bit. (it's at 63-64 now) now with any brew i've witnessed, as it starts to slow down, the krausen falls back, but this one dropped like a brick. there, then a couple hours later, gone. the thing that's got me wondering is, now there's very little krausen but the beer's still very active. lots of bubbling and swirling in the carboy, it's trying to go up in temp so i'm still needing to add ice from time to time to keep in around 63 or so. i've brewed a lot of beer, and seen some odd things during a ferment, but i've never seen a beer that's this active have almost no krausen.
i know, right, RDWHAHB, step away from the carboy and chill. i'm not really worried, so much as perplexed. wondering if anyone else has seen something like this or if any of you have any thoughts on this?

The same exact thing happened to my recent Dunkel.. It hit expected FG and turned out great..

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

cool. i figured it was pretty normal and just one of many things i've yet to see in my brewing. it's active as all get out, which is sweet cuz i've been working with this yeast frequently to try to get authentic english beers and i think i may have it down with this batch. :rocking: last batch i used it in was d@mn close. it's just so weird to see so much activity and so little krausen. it's good to hear that others have seen this too. thanks guys!

 

[ajfranke]

I've been washing & repitching a line of 1098 for about 6 or 7 batches now, and I've seen this behavior in maybe two thirds or more of the fermentations. The krausen never gets more than a half-inch high, and then disappears in a matter of hours, but it's at or near FG in only a few days. The only fermentations of mine that I can recall where it didn't do this were a cider, and a honey rye where I put a bunch of honey in secondary. Personally, I love this yeast.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I've been washing & repitching a line of 1098 for about 6 or 7 batches now, and I've seen this behavior in maybe two thirds or more of the fermentations. The krausen never gets more than a half-inch high, and then disappears in a matter of hours, but it's at or near FG in only a few days. The only fermentations of mine that I can recall where it didn't do this were a cider, and a honey rye where I put a bunch of honey in secondary. Personally, I love this yeast.

sweet. that's good to know, thanks. i've always noticed that 1098's a smaller krausener (?), and that the krausen drops fairly quick, but it's nice to hear other brewers say they've seen this same behavior in their beer with 1098. thanks a lot!