London ESB 1968, Cocoa Powder, No real Krausen

[JosephN]

I brewed a double chocolate oatmeal milk stout 3 days ago. I took two of Jamil's recipes and mixed them together to make this one. In his Hazelnut recipe he says to us .5# of Low Fat Unsweetened Cocoa Powder. I have never seen "LOW FAT" cocoa powder, but the I did get unsweetened powder that had 5 grams of fat verses the 15-22 that I've seen in other powders. Anyways I did us .5# or the whole 8oz package like he suggested. I did make a starter with the London ESB 1968, the yeast was only a week old from Wyeast. I cooled my wort to around 66, Jamil suggests 68F for fermenting so I dropped it a little for pitching. The yeast took off well, bubbling like crazy and almost blowing the cap off my 3 piece airlock, by the 24hr period. I went to bed after the first full day and woke up the next morning to see a slight ring that Krausen normally leaves, but there was none built up. I assume it either formed overnight and dropped by morning, or something else happened. Anyways I'm nearly 72 hours into the fermentation, no real krausen has formed, and the wort/beer is bubbling steady but looks super thick (more than likely from the cocoa powder).

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this before, and if there is anything they suggest that needs to be done, if anything at all? Also have I messed up somehow (I can give greater detail if needed) or does this seem normal?

I have read a few posts about this subject, but I have not gotten any real solid answers. Some people posted about it and then never got back about how it turned out. One guy said his ended up tasting like Muddy water. I'd hate to have to toss it, but again I was following Jamil's recipes

 

[JosephN]

So this doesn't get lost in the countless other threads. Any ideas??

 

[zoomzilla]

I've had the same thing happen when fermenting nuts or coconut. I think the fats and oils-in your case milk fat- are keeping the krausen from sticking to the side of the fermentor or possibly keeping it from forming at all. There is nothing to worry about your beer will be great. I notice in your SIG that you are fermenting a beer using sunflower seeds. Is the same thing happening with that one?

 

[JosephN]

I notice in your SIG that you are fermenting a beer using sunflower seeds. Is the same thing happening with that one?

I need to update that because I ended up not throwing in the sunflower seeds, mainly because I forgot, and was looking forward to trying it. I do know that with the pistachios in other recipes they say you should boil them for a min, stick them in the freezer and once the fat layer forms on the top that you should scrap it off and throw it away. Then let your boiled water thaw with the nuts in it and just dump the whole thing in your secondary. This was from BYO on a pistachio pale ale.