Two krausens from one batch?! WTH?!

Anybody have any experience with getting two different krausens from the same batch? I’m still pretty new to brewing, but this seems a little odd to me.

On Friday, I decided to brew a half batch (2.5 Gallons) of Graff (it’s a cider with malt and hops). I followed the recipe (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/) pretty closely, and used US-05 yeast.

OG was 1.06. It was my first time using dry yeast and I pitched the whole packet. It said to sprinkle the yeast into the fermenter. Since I was sprinkling it into a carboy, most of the yeast was landing in the same place, so I pitched a little, gently shook the carboy to help spread the yeast, and then pitched a little more and continued the process until all the yeast was pitched. According to my temperature strip, the wort temp was 77f.

Within two and a half hours a small krausen began to form. It looked kind of greenish grey. By that time, the temp was 75f.



Other brewers had said that they got a pretty big krausen with this recipe and the need for a blow off tube, but mine wasn’t that big.



By Sunday, most of the krausen had fallen (except for the small ring around the outside) and the cider was noticeably lighter in color. The temp has remained steady at around 68-70f.



This morning (Tuesday), I took a look at it and to my surprise, a new krausen had formed! This one looked a little thicker and much cleaner/creamier.


I’m not worried, I actually laughed when I saw it. I’m just curious about what the heck is going on. Is something like this normal? What does it mean?

Was I not suppose to shake the carboy when I added the dry yeast? I didn't rehydrate the packet because I read opinions for and against it, so I figured it would be fine without. Keep in mind I also used a whole packet for a 2.5 gallon batch. According to Mr.Malty, this was the amount I was suppose to use.

 

Anyone?...Anyone?...Bueller?...Bueller?

 

Kind of looks like hop trub and cold break in the first pics. My shot in the dark is that that was cold break and other proteins that eventually settled out and then the yeast took. Five hours is really, really fast for non-re hydrated dry yeast to take off.

 

It began bubbling about 1 bubble every 10 seconds at approximately 5-6 hours after I pitched. For the next two days it was bubbling once per second. It's currently bubbling about once every 2 or three seconds. Do you think it could take 3.5 days for the real krausen to show up with that kind of bubble activity?

It definitely looked like the first one could have been hop trub, but my eye for this stuff is not very well developed yet.

 

Its possible it took that long for the yeast to really kick into gear. I would guess the first bubbles were from the temperature reaching an equilibrium and the first layer on the beer was hops and cold break. If it smells and looks okay now, you are probably fine. Let it run its course and see how things go.

 

You had a few temperature changes. That, can affect yeast. It's fine.

MC