Krausen MIA

Wondering if someone could impart some wisdom on me or see if this has ever happen to anyone else: I brewed a one gallon Festivus Miracle Ale extract kit five days ago and I never observed the krausen form. Not even a hint of one starting.

I brewed it according to the instructions, used PBW and Star San to sanitize everything, I used distilled water and it is currently fermenting in a 3 gallon carboy, which has been kept at a constant 68 degrees in a cool dark environment with soothing BB King playing while it hopefully has been fermenting. I have a healthy amount of activity in the airlock. The OG was 1.077 and the expected gravity was 1.070. I have not taken a second gravity ready because I still have activity in the airlock and was waiting for that to stop before taking a reading.

The only thing I did that was bone headed was once I aerated the wort in the carboy and allowed it to cool to 70 degrees I pitched the yeast before topping the wort off to one gallon. I added some distilled water after pitching the yeast to top the wort off to one gallon. Don’t know if that matters or not. Looking at the old forum topics I didn’t see anything where the krausen failed to form. Any advice would be welcome and thanks!

Seems really odd to me… off the wall theory would be that wort stratification is leading to yeast fermenting the bottom layer and you don’t have enough proteins in the top layer to foam up. Even I’m rolling my eyes at that theory, though. If you have airlock activity, I’d just ride it out and get a gravity measurement after another week or so.

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Thanks for the reply. Glad I’m not the only one that sees this as really odd. I’m at least looking at this as a great learning experience as to what happens when the krausen doesn’t form since I’ve brewed this beer before and have somewhat of an idea what it should taste like.

You will need to let us know how it compares to the previous brew.

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Quote" Airlock activity is not an indication of fermentation" Unquote.
But in this case, it certainly is peace of mind that something happened. Agreed it’s weird that there was no krausen.
If it were mine, I’d take an SG just to be sure where you are.
And, you’re correct, adding the topoff water after the yeast was no biggie.

Thanks for the input! I broke down and checked the gravity. The OG was 1.077 (expected was 1.070) and after 8 days the gravity is 1.017. So it is fermenting and seems to be almost, if not, done fermenting. I’m going to check it in a few more days to see if the gravity is consistent.

The crazy thing is sample of the beer I pulled is clear as a bell, has a great color and a great aroma so I am at a complete loss on what happen with the krausen.

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That is truly awesome, although an oddball…

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