How to get good lacing?

I have had a real problem getting good lacing from my homebrews, regardless of style or recipe. Head retention has also been mediocre. I know it's not my glassware/dishwasher messing with the lacing because many beers that I purchase don't have any problem leaving lacing on the same glassware.

I brew all grain, often adding a pound of wheat to get some extra proteins to help with head retention. I have also tried aging the beers for many months. The only culprit that I can think of is soap. However, I am very careful about rinsing my equipment. I don't use anything soapy on my bottles either (and they don't go into the dishwasher) except star san. I rinse the bottles well with water after they are empty, store upside down, and then sanitize with star san at proper concentration. After that I drain them upside down for an hour or two before they are filled.

What I would like to see is that really fine, clingy foam that lends itself to good head retention and lacing. Instead I get this crappy stuff composed of large bubbles that all burst within a minute or so. Any ideas?

Try adding some cara-pils to your grain bill, or even adding maltodextrin to the boil. My head formation and retention, as well as lacing, have skyrocketed since I started using dextrin malts.

Head retention is a complicated subject. There is no single "fix" for poor head retention since a good head will result from any modern malt. For example, 100% two row will produce a long lasting head with lacing.

Instead of trying to add a bunch of dextrin malt, wheat, etc. to your beer, look at your brewing process first. Poor head retention can result from:

1.) unbalanced mash chemistry and/or temperature (e.g., a 160F rest increases foam positive polyphenols)

2.) poor yeast health (e.g., increased fatty acid production)

3.) poor separation of hot break from the wort (cold break is not an issue)

4.) excessive splashing during transfer

lamarguy said:

Head retention is a complicated subject. There is no single "fix" for poor head retention since a good head will result from any modern malt. For example, 100% two row will produce a long lasting head with lacing.

Click to expand...

Do you mean can produce a long lasting head, depending on the maltster? This is surprising to me either way.

lamarguy said:

Instead of trying to add a bunch of dextrin malt, wheat, etc. to your beer, look at your brewing process first. Poor head retention can result from:

1.) unbalanced mash chemistry and/or temperature (e.g., a 160F rest increases foam positive polyphenols)

2.) poor yeast health (e.g., increased fatty acid production)

3.) poor separation of hot break from the wort (cold break is not an issue)

4.) excessive splashing during transfer

Click to expand...

I wouldn't have even considered any of these reasons you've listed off the top of my head. What are your resources for this?

jmo88 said:

Do you mean can produce a long lasting head, depending on the maltster? This is surprising to me either way.

Click to expand...

The ingredients for the beer below are Munich, Northern Brewer hops, S-04 and water. Great head, great lacing.

chefchris said:

The ingredients for the beer below are Munich, Northern Brewer hops, S-04 and water. Great head, great lacing.

Click to expand...

Now that's a purty beer! Although, I could see a Munich SMaSH producing good lace, but it's the 2-row that'd surprise me since it will attenuate higher. I understand what produces head. But like the OP was saying, producing lacing –beyond having clean glasses– has always been an enigma to me.

I am a firm believer in dextrine for head retention. I brew all grain and typically mash in the 151-154* range. Always producet great tasting balanced beers with good carbonation, always had head issues. Tried wheat and got cloudy beer and weird clumpy head. Now every beer I make has 1/2 lb dextrine or cara-foam in the mash or gets 6oz of maltodextrine in thr boil. they all have great head.

jmo88 said:

I wouldn't have even considered any of these reasons you've listed off the top of my head. What are your resources for this?

Click to expand...

There are academic papers on the properties of head retention. All modern malts have adequate protein to form a good head with lacing. It's what the brewer does to the malt that determines how well the head develops in the glass.

Getting Good Beer Foam: Techniques

Good read on head retention

lamarguy said:

Head retention is a complicated subject. There is no single "fix" for poor head retention since a good head will result from any modern malt. For example, 100% two row will produce a long lasting head with lacing.

Instead of trying to add a bunch of dextrin malt, wheat, etc. to your beer, look at your brewing process first. Poor head retention can result from:

1.) unbalanced mash chemistry and/or temperature (e.g., a 160F rest increases foam positive polyphenols)

2.) poor yeast health (e.g., increased fatty acid production)

3.) poor separation of hot break from the wort (cold break is not an issue)

4.) excessive splashing during transfer

Click to expand...

I agree that great head retention can be achieved with just base malts. Look at Duvel... that is 100% pilsener malt (and sugar) and it has one of the rockiest heads I've seen. I believe their secret lies in obtaining pilsener malts from several different sources (French, Belgian, etc.), specifying to the maltster the modification they want for each malt, and utilizing specific mash pH, rest times and temperatures (step-mashing), and of course, the high level of carbonation.

For number 1, I don't understand how a 160°F rest will help. You probably mean polypeptides, not polyphenols. A 160°F rest will target alpha amylase, which will break down starches to dextrins. How will this help with forming foam-positive albumins/polypeptides? Also, I don't necessarily agree with number 4. This has been discussed in this thread... the whole "lost foam" idea. I haven't seen anything to convince me this is true.

lamarguy said:

There are academic papers on the properties of head retention. All modern malts have adequate protein to form a good head with lacing. It's what the brewer does to the malt that determines how well the head develops in the glass.

Getting Good Beer Foam: Techniques

Good read on head retention

Click to expand...

Perfect. Thanks. I'll check it out.

As the OP, thanks for the tips and the links. I will look into these.

I was afraid that my brewing process was contributing to the problem..and it probably is the culprit, but I am going to start by modifying my next recipe to see if that can help.

Just make one of the adjustments at a time. If you go changing 3 or 4 things, and you get good lacing, you won't "know" what caused it. Good luck.

ZehBaron said:

Try adding some cara-pils to your grain bill, or even adding maltodextrin to the boil. My head formation and retention, as well as lacing, have skyrocketed since I started using dextrin malts.

Click to expand...

I agree, I add about a 1lb of cara-pils to every recipe and the lace is present. Before that it seemed like the beers were flat. Good luck!

chefchris said:

The ingredients for the beer below are Munich, Northern Brewer hops, S-04 and water. Great head, great lacing.

Click to expand...

Is your brewery name in reference to the band?

C4PNJ4ZZ said:

Is your brewery name in reference to the band?

Click to expand...

Don't know of a band called that. Before I moved all of my friends were straight edge and Stay Gold is their cute little slogan. I liked to give them **** about it every little chance I could.

chefchris said:

Don't know of a band called that. Before I moved all of my friends were straight edge and Stay Gold is their cute little slogan. I liked to give them **** about it every little chance I could.

Click to expand...

http://www.myspace.com/xstaygoldxhc

Its funny because the logo is surprisingly similar

A lot of my friends are still straight edge. Luckily most of them broke edge shortly after their bands broke up haha.

C4PNJ4ZZ said:

http://www.myspace.com/xstaygoldxhc

Its funny because the logo is surprisingly similar

A lot of my friends are still straight edge. Luckily most of them broke edge shortly after their bands broke up haha.

Click to expand...

It's only a matter of time before they all do. It's like death.