LBC first-time fermentation

[Brewbirds]

My question is, if anyone has had this kind of thing to happen: I put a batch of BD's IPA in the fermenter on 10/7; on the second day the yeast worked furiously, the bubbler (the S-shaped kind) chugging away and a lot of krausen; by the third day it subsided quickly and for the next 13 days it lay dormant and flat. No activity at all that I could see. I was just about to get out the hydrometer and see if 2 weeks had been long enough. But last night and all today the krausen has reformed and the bubbler is bubbling, not furiously but sedately, about twice a minute. So I guess the yeast can lie "dormant" for a while and give the impression it has quit, when in fact it hasn't. So 3 weeks in the ferm for this for sure. Have any of you guys (or ladies) had this experience?]

I have had that happen once and of course I was concerned that it was an infection taking off but that brew is bottled and behaving in the conditioning closet right now.

I would advise for now be calm and let it do it's thing, you don't want to keep taking hydro samples because it wastes beer. Make sure you are taking good notes through your brew day and post here after you see that the yeast has dropped out of suspension, my guess right now is that your gravity reading is going to be your friend on when to bottle this.

[mashani]

It's possible the yeast got lazy and woke up. Some yeast will do that especially if there are temperature fluctuations.

It's also possible the krausen is from something else. Beer infecting organisms like wild yeasts do also make krausen sometimes. Sometimes really furious krausen.

That does not mean the beer will be bad, my own personal beer infecting organism (a brett C strain that stays alive in my AC somewhere I think) makes good, if slightly unusual beer. I enjoy a few batches of that beer every summer. 3 this year actually. All were good, as long as you don't mind a touch of pinapple and hay added to your other flavors. It doesn't make them sour. Just slightly weird. I like weird.