I'm a little confused on what the krausen looks like on this, I've seen reference to the shiny dark brown/black surface with good size bubbles in the thread but I kind of get the feeling that that is referring to when the vanilla is added. Is that right? Both of my attempts at this have ended up with a similar appearance during primary fermentation without the vanilla bean, never showing any signs of a traditional krausen (the second batch has been fermenting for 4 days now). I was thinking it might be due to the cocoa which I increased to 3 oz/5gal. Wondering if anyone else has had similar experience? The first batch was actually a split batch with half getting PB2; that half formed a thick, fluffy, beige krausen. The other half actually became infected with a slight sour tang (think it was due to an issue during transfer) so I'm worrying that the appearance is due to infection again.
if shes bubbling i dont peek. throw it into a secondary after primary and let it ride, if its infected you will know pretty quick.