how often does a beer make ZERO krausen?!?

[Hoochin'Fool]

So I made a beer 5 days ago, OG was 1063, expecting FG of 1014. The yeast (S-04) never made one bit of krausen, but the gravity is now at 1020, so clearly it has been busy. I've never seen anything like this before, any ideas what's going on? And should I be worried that it's going to have something wrong with it?

More details:
Started out with a half-pack S-04 (it was a 3 gal batch), and Monday afternoon, I thought I'd take a peek in the bucket, and saw no foam or any kind of indication of fermentation, other than it smelled a little boozy. So I added the rest of that pack of S-04. Just checked on it again, and still no foam or anything, so I took a hydrometer sample. Temps have been between 62F and 66F the whole time (as measured by one of those stickon thermometers).

 

[day_trippr]

My experience with S04 over the years has been more prototypically "boisterous". I've oft referred to S04 as a beast strain, as when my 1.107 OG imperial stout lights off I have to stuff 1" diameter blow-offs in my carboys into a catch vessel to avoid swamping my fermentation fridge.

I can only speculate the excursions down to 62°F have had an attenuative effect on its activity level, but I bet if you give it enough time it will finish up just fine, even if it does most of its work in stealth mode...

Cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

It made krausen, you just missed it. Fermentation can occur pretty quickly if you add sufficient yeast and it will make its krausen and then the krausen falls quickly. Look carefully at the sides of the bucket half an inch or so above the beer for a little bit of krausen stuck there.

If you really want to see krausen, check on day 2 and again on day 3.

 

[kadozen]

Transferred my last batch onto the cake from a previous S04 batch and missed the krausen completely. Can definitely see other signs of it having fermented, but yeah, krausen came and went in the dead of night I guess

 

[Broken Crow]

I had that happen once using S04 for an amber ale recipe I made up from leftovers... It took forever to clear but it reached it's expected OG in the end. With apologies, I remember neither the recipe nor the time, only that it took roughly 2-3 weeks longer than I had expected, but it was delicious and worth the wait.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Nope, no ring of dried foam or anything above the beer. Not my first fermentation, by a long shot, but definitely my first one that never *appeared* to have fermented (aside from checking gravity). I kept the sample in the hydrometer tube and covered it, and it's now down to 1018.

 

[passedpawn]

Is there an ingredient (cocoa nibs, etc) that might act to suppress the creation of foam? Is this a dark beer?
How do you clean your fermentor?

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

No odd ingredients yet (coconut extract will be added at bottling). I clean the fermentor (5 gal bucket) just like my other three: oxiclean-free, some dishwashing soap, and fill with hot water -- soak until cool enough to stick my hands in with dish-cloth, and gently scrub clean, then rinse thoroughly before putting away.

It is a quite dark beer (37 srm, I think), lotta dark (but not too roasty) malts! This is the 4th time I've made this recipe, but the first time I used S-04 on it (was hoping to get just a touch more sweetness than US-05 was leaving). But I've used S-04 lots of times on other recipes, and have never seen anything like this complete lack of foam/krausen.

It's clearly fermenting, since the gravity is already pretty close to expected final after less than 1 week. I suppose there's not much to do but wait and hope for the best.

 

[lumpher]

You probably didn't seat the lid too well. CO2 escaped as it was created, so no apparent foaming.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

That's not it, I don't seal any of my lids! Not replying to these to be argumentative, more just in case someone else ever googles this topic... I'll follow up in a week or two, depending on when it finishes.

 

[hottpeper13]

I used dish soap for cleaning my brew bag twice and both beers fermented like crazy(Big Mouth), you could see the CO2 bubbles at the surface but no foam. Also no head from the tap. Good luck.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I used dish soap for cleaning my brew bag twice and both beers fermented like crazy(Big Mouth), you could see the CO2 bubbles at the surface but no foam. Also no head from the tap. Good luck.

I've never done more than rinse my brew bag (ie, hardware store, paint-straining bag) in cold water to get the grain husks out, and then air dry. I wouldn't have thought the soap would have survived the boil to affect anything other than taste, tho! Interesting!

 

[hotbeer]

I haven't been brewing very long, but I've had plenty of beers that showed a lot of evidence of Kraeusen and many that showed nothing except for a drop in SG and eventually clearing up when left in the FV long enough.