Krausen fell early?

I took the plunge yesterday and brewed up my first batch. I bought a kit and followed the directions (see previous post). I measured my OG and it was spot on according to BeerSmith. Transfered it to my 6.5 gallon carboy, shook it like crazy, pitched my re-hydrated starter yeast, and put it in my closet (67 degrees). Here she is:



I checked 5 hours later and it was bubbling away, krausen already a couple inches high. Temp still 67 degrees:



Checked on it this morning about 9 hours later. Temp dropped a couple degrees to 65. The krausen looks to have overflowed my airlock a bit, and the krausen has fallen back as shown here:



Is this beer ok? Is this normal? I used S-33 yeast for this Belgian Wit.

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Jim

 

Update: After 24 hours the krausen is completely gone. The airlock is still bubbling, but slowly (once every 30 secs or so).

Should I take a gravity reading? Shake/swirl it? Or just leave it alone...

Thanks,
Jim

 

If it is working, don't screw with it. Remember that no airlock activity does not mean stopped fermentation, but bubbling DOES mean fermentation. Don't mess with it.

The fact you had activity after only 5 hours is impressive. It probably is going to finish earlier than you expect as it started early. Give it some time. And when in doubt, take a gravity reading before doing anything to your brew.

It is fine. Let it ride.

 

What temperature did the wort reach during fermentation. Yeast fermentation increases the temperature of the wort. If it got warm, above 72 degrees, your active fermentation has probably finished.

You have good activity. Keep the beer cool, below 70 degrees and wait 3-4 weeks to allow the yeast to finish all the cleanup they will do, then bottle your beer. 3 weeks at about 70 degrees of bottle aging and you will have a nice beer.

 

just leave it be until it starts to drop clear. fermentation can happen really fast. i have a 1.085 Pliny clone in primary that the krausen was up and down on in 48 hours, and that was at 62 degrees. sometimes it just happens like that, usually it's due to healthy yeast or high temps.... since your temps are good, i'm guessing you had a healthy ferment. congrats!!! and welcome to the hobby and to HBT!

 

It's n-o-r-m-a-l. Don't touch it. DO NOT TOUCH IT. Relax.

 

Thanks guys. It's tough when you read that you should see activity within 12-24 hours and mine almost looked done by that time!

I do not have a thermo on the bottle itself, although now I wish I did. I know fermentation is exothermic, but I failed to take that into account. The closet I am keeping it in stays a fairly constant temp in the mid-60's so I figured that was a good temp. I thought about moving into a tub filled with water as I've read that is a good way to maintain a fairly constant temp.

I appreciate the help. Thanks again!

Jim

 

that's a really good idea. check out this blog i wrote on doing just that. i brew everything from lagers to hefe's using this to control temps.