Did fermentation ever happen?

[Sturkbr]

First time home brewer here! Got the 1 gallon kit and tried Kama Citra for my first batch. Brew day went well or at least I thought. It’s finally time for bottling day (full 2 weeks in glass fermenter) but I’m worried the beer never actually fermented. I never got a large head of foam on the top of the beer in the fermenter and it doesn’t appear to have cleared up a whole lot. I placed the fermenter in my spare bathroom bathtub and have kept it away from direct sun and the house consistently between 69-72°. I don’t have any instruments to measure gravity. just ordered a hydrometer but thought I’d post the question on here to see if anyone had any thoughts. Photo 1: 2 days after brew day

Photo 2: 2 weeks after brew day

TIA.

[radagast]

So that lovely layer of sentiment on the bottom is a good sign that fermentation happened. If it’s been in there for two weeks, if you want to check on it, sanitize a thief of some variety (turkey baster works) and put a sample in a glass. If it tastes like beer, you’re good! What type of yeast did you use? Different yeasts have different levels of aggressiveness in their fermentation.

Rad

[Sturkbr]

Rad, thanks! I’ll give it a try. I used the yeast that came with the Kama Citra 1 gallon starter kit, so not entirely sure. I appreciate your quick reply though.

[radagast]

From looking at the extract kit, I’m going to assume you used US-05 dry yeast. This is a solid yeast, given the right environment, it’ll do the job handily. If you like the taste, I’d say go ahead and bottle. If it tastes a little off, maybe let it sit for another week before transferring. Now for the REALLY hard part. . .waiting for the bottles to carb.

Rad

[Sturkbr]

Good to hear! Appreciate the guidance!

Cheers!

[dannyboy58]

If you have a hydrometer sanitize it and just put it in the fermenter then you won’t waste any of that precious one gallon of wort but you can be sure it’s safe to bottle.

There appears to be a small ring of krauesen residue around the fermenter at the top of the liquid so I’m guess it fermented. Im just surprised it isn’t bigger and you didn’t notice but it could have happened quickly at that temperature.

[loopie_beer]

I agree with both @radagast and @dannyboy58. Krausen ring on the top and yeast sediment on the bottom. Some yeast can take awhile to drop. Another indication is the color of the wort vs the color of the beer.
Glad you got a hydrometer on the way. It will confirm complete fermentation.

[Sturkbr]

Thanks all! I have the hydrometer coming this weekend, so I think I will go ahead and wait a couple more days before testing anything out. Will let y’all know how it goes!

[WMNoob]

Actually the clarity of the beer in the second picture is an indication to me that she’s done. Add in the Krauss bring and the sediment- you’re good. Welcome to the forum!