jjward101

Recipes 

PERVS! I meant in beer, lol. What is it in a recipe that helps us to get a nice, thick, creamy head. ReDing around the site, it seems as though some think that rice solids aid in head/head retention, but im not really sure. Im asking, because the last few brews, most people have enjoyed the taste, the aroma, etc....but all have commented that there wasnt much of a head.

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turtle

Recipes 

What are you pouring it into?

boo boo

Recipes 

Middle weight protiens are responsible for a lot of the head you see on a properly poured beer with enough carbonation.
Clean, grease free glassware also helps.

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thedirtystayout

Recipes 

Hops (especially with high alpha acids) create head. So if you're brewing an IPA, you generally dont have to worry.

Certain grains/malts also help with head, such as carapils or torrified wheat. These are ideal additions for styles such as stouts and porters.

jar1087

Recipes 

On the recipe side, adding wheat malt, carapils, flaked oats, or flaked barley can all increase head formation. I add 2-3% wheat to most of my beers just for that purpose. Also, the amount of hops in the recipe can affect head retention, because the iso-alpha acids can help stabilize head; this effect seems to be especially noticeable in Pilsners, IMHO.

On the process side, make sure that if you use soap or oxyclean on your equipment that you rinse it extremely well, because the detergents can negatively affect head retention. Finally, never use drying aids in your dishwasher (Jetdry, et al) and consider hand washing your glassware with minimal soap.

onthekeg

Recipes 

All the times that I have messed with hops in beers they will dissolve head due to the oils. Much the same way dirty glassware dissolves head.
IPA's generally have grains with long chain proteins added such as wheat, carapils, carafoam, etc or they would have very little lasting head.

hector

Recipes 

There is an audio Podcast concerning "Beer Foam" on the Basic Brewing Radio Homepage .

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio

Look for the January 7 , 2010 Episode .

It will give you lots of Information .

Take a look also at this article in "BYO" magazine :

http://byo.com/stories/techniques/article/indices/35-head-retention/697-getting-good-beer-foam-techniques


Hector

jjward101

Recipes 

I am pouring into extremely clean pilsner glasses, I have been extremely clean and careful with sanitizing as well. Im now wondering if maybe my late hop additions are creating some of the problem.
Do the rice solids actually do anything at all for head? Or are they just more fermentables?

Thanks to all for the replies.

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Hoppin_Mad

Recipes 

I brew extract and am having the same problem. Have been experimenting with adding carapils and using late extract additions to try and improve it. Have not bottled the beers with these changes yet to find out if it makes a noticeable improvement though....

jar1087

Recipes 

@jjward101 - What do you mean by rice solids? Rice husks?