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**glenn514** · 08-14-2012, 01:20 PM

Took my four mugs and three glasses and proceeded to salt-rub them thoroughly yesterday afternoon. At dinner...fried chicken fingers and waffle fries with garden green beans...I poured myself a Phat Tyre Amber clone into one of the mugs...and behold, a head developed! A lovely, thick, rich head! Imagine that!

Again, my thanks for the responses.

glenn514

jungatheart · 01-13-2013, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yooper

Hmmm. I would try doing a "salt scrub" on the glass, just to rule that out. Just moisten the glass with some water, and sprinkle table salt on it. Rub it with your hand, doing the whole glass, like you would with scouring powder on a sink. Then rinse well. Dry with a clean soft cloth.

I assume you're using room temperature glasses, but if not make sure you do for the "testing". (It's tough, having to sample a beer at 9 AM, isn't it?!?

)

As far as the actual grains, I'm sure those beers have crystal malt and/or flaked wheat or flaked barley. That should be sufficient. But in oatmeal stout, sometimes too much oatmeal can kill head retention. The oils in the oats can make a wonderfully silky mouthfeel, but that can interfere with the head, so I add flaked barley to make up for it.

How is the body of the beer? Does it feel medium to full? What were your mash temps?

Thanks for this. Made all the difference in the head on my beers.

Puroman · 01-17-2013, 12:32 AM

I'm glad I logged on today. I brewed a stout last March. After a few weeks of bottle conditioning, I opened one up. Same problem. Fast forward to today, in fact two nights ago, I opened one of my last two bottles of that stout. The head that formed was awesome. Not sure if I had the same issues, I do the same thing with my bottles, hot water rinse, then star san, then bottle. I guess that all some of these need is some aging time in the bottle. Anyone have some thought on this?

**Orthobrewsky** · 01-18-2013, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puroman

I'm glad I logged on today. I brewed a stout last March. After a few weeks of bottle conditioning, I opened one up. Same problem. Fast forward to today, in fact two nights ago, I opened one of my last two bottles of that stout. The head that formed was awesome. Not sure if I had the same issues, I do the same thing with my bottles, hot water rinse, then star san, then bottle. I guess that all some of these need is some aging time in the bottle. Anyone have some thought on this?

Yes, despite the OP solving the problem through some attention to glassware, I think there could be something about stouts. I haven't really had a problem since I've been kegging, though the foam still seems to be quite a bit greater after some conditioning. When I was bottling, I always seemed to have trouble getting any head on stouts until they had conditioned for quite a while. I have read that there are foam enhancers as well as foam killers in beer. With extended conditioning helping this, it seems likely that some of the foam killers could be dropping out over time.

Almost all of my stouts contained oatmeal, which is generally considered a foam enhancer, but also contains things (fat, I think) which can reduce foam.

There's a pretty nice article on this topic here:http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/35-head-retention/697-getting-good-beer-foam-techniques