Head retention

Denny, Could the wheat extract / protein be added in the method suggested by Glenn L "You could try steeping some crystal or Dextrine (Carapils) malt in your brewing water before boiling." What else is wheat extract called on the retail market? There is no specialty brew shop in town, just a bread shop and a department store who stock basics. Grumpy's Brewhaus seems to have everything, but they are 400km away. Iain

Glenn is talking about grains, not extract. I don't know of a source for it other than a brewshop. Glenn's method would help also, if you can find the grains! The wheat malt extract would do a little more, but crystal or carapils could both help, too. Any chance of mailorder?

---------->Denny

If you want commercial type heads, you have to go with guar gum or seaweed extracts. I taste these in the Stone beers, and that is why I don't like them. If a brew comes up to a good head of complex bubble structures (many bubbles of different sizes and complex tunnels, and then dies down fairly quickly) - I take that as a great sign of an excellent brew.

JS

Denny C> RedMan wrote:

Hi Red, I add the white of an egg to the brew two days before bottling . Just drop it in the fermenter . It works just as good as any head enhancer. When cleaning the fermenter you will find it stuck to the side , just wash in out . I have done this for the past ten years. Believe me it works.

Coopers make some of the best beer kits on the market . I have tryed lots of other brands , some twice the price but I all ways go back to Coopers .

Try Coopers Larger with one kilo Derxtrose. Add about 25 grams Saaz - Czech Hop Pellets (boil for about 15 minuits strain then add the liquid). Don't forget the Egg white two days before you bottle.

This is one of my favourites . Taste after about four weeks . Good Luck. J.B.

OK, I admit I'm fairly new here, but have been lurking for a while, but I really want to know - what's the fascination with keeping a head on the beer? I poor my beer out of the bottle and into the glass in a manner to minimize foarming. I HATE the head of foam. I want to drink the beer, not suck on foam.

I'd love to hear insight into this.

I'm not alone either. Nobody I work with is very fond of a big head of foam on their beer. Carbonation: YES. Foam: NO.

It's a presentation and I guess a pride thing. I agree that 2 inches of head on the beer just denotes a bad pour and a waste of actual beer. Not to mention a hassle in the moustache area. A cm or so of persistent head looks good. Foam that rises then disappears to a clear surface reminds me of creaming soda, and does not look professional. It makes the beer look flat and uninviting. To me at least. I must say that UK bitter styles do not need the head, nor do they need to be icy cold. Horses for courses. Red

I am having problems with my brews retaining a head. They are well carbonated, taste good and are certainly not flat. They just won't hold a head!

I primary ferment in a barrel, then bottle off for secondary ferment. I don't have room or a second barrel to rack for bulk priming or cold conditioning. I use PET bottles, as decent glass is unavailable here - I used to break 1 in three bottles while capping.

So far I have tried Coopers Lager, draught, bitter and real ale (glass of which is in front of me now) from the "Original" series. The Coopers site suggests using their brew enhancer 1 or 2 - no difference. I have also tried coopers dextrose instead of brewer's sugar. The current brew is Cooper's real ale, Cooper's brew enhancer 1 (Dextrose & Maltodextrin) and light dry malt. The flavour is just what I was after, but head free beer is not good for presentation. Nor am I quite satisfied by it.

Other than the fact that every brew so far has been Coopers, the only common factor is that I use carbonation drops for bottle priming. Is that a likely cause? Next brew I intend to try a dark ale and use some corn syrup in the primary blend. I will also try some safale yeast, as so far I have been using the kit yeast sachets. Local kit availability is limited to Coopers or Tooheys.

Any other suggestions? I have no interest in mashing or other brew-from-scratch methods. It's a hobby, not a lifestyle!

Red

I'm sorry to sound disrespectful, but you're so wrong I hardly know where to start. How about if you provide some evidence for us?

-------->Denny

OK, then, to each their own. I prefer no to very little foam that dissapates extremely quickly. If you look in the glass, though, you can see a stready stream of bubbles heading up for the surface, for a pleasing visual.

Hi

Here in the UK, I always keg my beer into a beersphere. The instructions for filling the sphere state - quote; "Smear petroleum jelly (or silicon grease) lightly on the cap threads and O-ring to assist in fitting and removing of the cap."

It hadn't occurred to me before, but is this bad advice? Surely, it is inevitable that this grease is going to "contaminate" the brew and so destroy head retention. I am now wondering if this is the reason why my homebrews (although tasting fine) rarely have the head that commercial beers have.

Any comments anyone??? How do other keggers seal their kegs??

Regards KGB

?? I can smell the aroma coming up out of my bottle when I pop the cap, and there is no head of foam then. The CO2 bubbles popping carry no discernable odor.

You aren't going to get skunyness in the time it takes you to drink your glass of beer - unless it takes you a couple of days.

Hi NM,

What you need is a big Belgian glass. It looks like a brandy snifter but has thicker glass, stronger stem, etc. The inward curve at the top kills the head and compresses it as it climbs. It concentrates the "nose" - I enjoy Belgians and other beers about four times as much as I used to since switching to the large Belgian glass.

As for the rest of you,

Dried albumin is a commercial product, but I think guar gum and seaweed extract are the more common "conditioners" included in popular beer kits. Taste a Samuel Smith IPA (of course they ain't what they used to be) then taste a Stone IPA. The Stone is almost "greasy" - that's the extracts and additives.

-JS

NobodyMan wrote:

If you don't smear the sealing ring with vaseline it might not seal properly and your beer will be flat. If the vaseline or silicone grease gets into the beer you must be using an awful lot of it or rolling the Beersphere around (which is something I have done with a Beersphere to try to get the beer to condition properly in the past - ie rousing the yeast to get it going just enough to fizz up properly). Even then I didn't get the grease into the beer.

Skunkiness doesn't come from O2...it comes from exposure to certain wavelengths of light. The UV wavelengths convert the mercaptans in the hops to sulfur compounds, producing the skunkiness. That's why its much more pronounced in beers in clear or green bottle. Brown bottles shiled against those wavelengths.

------->Denny

Can you provide any citations of this? It doesn't sound like anything I'm familiar with.

------->Denny