Not a lot of krausen?

[kenpotf]

I came home yesterday and noticed that my fermentation took hold. This morning when I woke up, I went to check on the carboy and it looks the same as it did last night. The wort came in at 1.081 OG,so I *thought* I would have seen a lot more activity than I do.

I attached a pic. I used Safale 05 and rehydrated. Is it just slow going?

 

[birvine]

When did you start the brew? What is the temp?

Just from the pic and what you're saying, all seems fine; if you started the brew in May, then there is a problem.

B

 

[unionrdr]

I've had brews with a half inch or less krausen. Not a problem,relax...

 

[makomachine]

I've had brews with a half inch or less krausen. Not a problem,relax...

+1 every beer has it's own krausen "personality". Wouldn't gauge anything on that and beer WILL happen.

 

[kenpotf]

After I posted this I started searching for other people's krausen...beer porn if you will. Anyway, I found that this can be normal. I was just under the impression that higher gravity = bigger krausen. (I was wrong.)

 

[Huck4Food]

Temperature will also play a role in fermentation activity. I generally ferment in the lower to mid range of a yeasts specified temp tolerance, and find that I also don't get the massive airlock popping eruptions that my friends get that ferment at what ever temperature the room happens to be (usually 75 deg or higher).

 

[kenpotf]

I was also looking at the amount of headspace that I have in this carboy. Do you think it's enough? This was the first time for me to use a carboy instead of a bucket. What would happen if I didn't have enough headspace? I'm assuming nothing bad other than it would utilitize more of the blow off tube.

 

[unionrdr]

Looks like enough to me. But a blow off the 1st couple of days is always good insurance.

 

[nos33]

the highest krausen i have seen with my 7 batches was about 1.5 inches. as low as .5 inches