Understanding krausen?

[leskohomebrews]

I've been paying close attention to the krausen on my hefeweizen ferment. It was nice and pillowy this afternoon but has fallen to 2/3 of what it was hours earlier. Is it common for it to grow and shrink as the ferment continues? This is day #2

 

[OnePlate]

It's fun to watch the evolution of krausen over time. Sadly it will eventually fall back into the beer as fermentation slows down and finishes. Some krausen hangs around for a couple weeks. Sometimes it falls in 72 hours. Just depends on the yeast strain.

 

[Day-Day]

Watching the development of the krausen is one of my favorite parts of brewing... it's one of the reasons I love carboys. It's perfectly normal for the krausen to shrink or fall... even on day 2... especially for smaller beers. The difference in krausen development across different yeast strains is just fascinating and amazing to watch.

 

[seatazzz]

I have two carboys and several buckets...which have stood idle for many months because I just love watching the yeast do their thing. I can stand for minutes at a time with the ferment fridge open, watching the yeast clumps frantically bounce around the fermenter.

I've had krausen hang around for 2 weeks, and I've seen it drop as soon as 3 days into fermentation (current blonde batch being one). Too many variables can affect that; fermentation temperature being one, and yeast strain another; even the same yeast strain might be different. Current batch is a brand new packet of notty; the previous new packet I used, in a similar batch, didn't drop until day 5.

 

[Alex4mula]

Watching the development of the krausen is one of my favorite parts of brewing... it's one of the reasons I love carboys. It's perfectly normal for the krausen to shrink or fall... even on day 2... especially for smaller beers. The difference in krausen development across different yeast strains is just fascinating and amazing to watch.

This. I have an Anvil bucket. Today I bought my 3rd glass carboy because I prefer watching what is going on.