guiness head on my beer

I just cracked my first ever batch after 8 days in the bottle. When i poured it in the glass i had a head exactly like guiness I thought you had to add nitrogen to get this effect It was 4 lbs mt mellick irish stout lme and 3.3 muntons dark lme.

Did you get a nice head or did you get that cascading effect you get from the nitro cans?

For my stouts I get a similar result (head and cascade) as the nitro can by using a syringe. I do a really gentle pour (trying to get no head at all) into the glass leaving at least an inch of space. Then I might leave it for a little bit to warm up a little depending on how cold it is. Using a syringe (type used to orally administer medicine to babies) I draw up 2ml of the stout. Then I hold the tip of the syringe just over the surface of the beer and blast the drawn up beer back into the glass as quickly as possible. For a split second it looks like nothing is happening and then there is a rush of bubbles to the surface that forms a nice velvety looking head.

I started doing this after reading that Guiness used to include a syringe in their six pack of bottled beer. The first time I tried this I drew up 5ml into the syringe. That was a mistake and I made quite a mess. You could probably get the same result by using a nice high pour but I prefer the syringe method.

So no you don't need nitrogen.

My light hybrid lager did this just from the act of pouring. I started to wonder if it can be something in the beer that can have this effect? Sometimes,as it subsides,it'll make a bubble tornado. Now that's cool.