Thick/Jelly head on beer

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Trenchant

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Jan 6, 2009
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Regina, Saskatchewan
I was just wondering what makes a thick almost jelly head on the top of homebrew? I made a batch from a cheap SuperStore kit and now that its aged for a while it has a fairly high, thick and jelly like foam head. Can someone fill me in a little bit? I remember on the "let your beer age" you tube video there was a comment about the protein content in the beer and the lacing on the sides of the glass.
 
That kinda sounds like malto-dextrine was added. I haven't used it in beer, but I've heard that it can give body and head retention to beer. I've used it in root beer (well, my son did) and he used tablespoons instead of teaspoons. He made rootbeer jello, but it had a nice head. That's what makes me think you might have had some MD added in there.
 
I pretty much followed the instructions exactly on this one. I guess the only thing I did differently was I used table sugar for bottle priming and I used liquid corn sugar instead of corn sugar. This was my first batch.

I'm hoping my second batch that I kegged doesn't turn out this way. Its kinda weird drinking the beer when it has slimy foam.
 
Liquid corn sugar? As in corn syrup maybe? If so, I think that would be your problem. They are not the same thing at all.
 
Ya I guess thats what it would be. I remember we checked the ingredients and it said corn sugar and water or something so I figured it would work. It's weird because I tried a beer 2 weeks after bottling and it didn't seem to have the same slimy head. It might have been because it didn't have much of a head at all on it though.

I'll have to see how the kegged beer comes out. It's a pilsner instead of a lager but its essentially the same kit. I used proper corn sugar with that one.
 
If its foamy, its normal. If its really jelly like, you could have an acetic acid bacteria infection. If it tastes like vinegar, thats the case.
 
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