What's going on?

[Cornraker]

So I brewed my second batch on saturday. NB dry irish stout with safale dry yeast. did everything correctly and woke up the next morning and bubbling away it is. Well its starts forming what i think is krausen but i realized it too light to be krausen. It looked like star san foaming up. Well anyways, it gets to the point where it hits the neck of the carboy and then I woke up the next morning and it fell back down into the wort but all the dark "good" looking stuff stuck to the carboy top and sides thats out of the wort. Airlock activity has slowed dramatically and it doesn't look like much is going on. No krausen to speak of either. What's the deal?

 

[BendBrewer]

You witnessed peak fermentation and krausen development. Sounds like you are about 3 weeks from bottling.

 

[Captain Damage]

That's just normal fermentation. You're no longer at "high kraeusen," but there's still a lot going on. The stuff stuck to the side of the carboy is hop debris, protein and other solids.

 

[gavo]

I just brewed this a few months ago. It did the exact same thing. You will be just fine. It turned out well for me.

 

[Nurmey]

Always remember that every beer ferments and forms krausen differently. Just because it didn't behave like your previous beer means nothing. Even the god awful ugly fermentations and weird floaties are almost always fine.

 

[Cornraker]

Ok thanks guys. I was just worried that the yeast stuck to the top and isn't actually in the wort anymore lol.

 

[Smokeater233]

That is yeast (called brown hefe) stuck to the top and some trub...it's all perfectly fine, but you want to leave it right where it is so that it doesn't fall back in and bitter your beer (but don't stress about it - even if you knock some in, the ramifications will be minute at worst).