Head Killer?

I made a Winter Warmer and its been in the bottle since 11/14/09, and it is fully carbonated; however the head goes away immediately and is more reminiscent (and sounds like) the fizz from a pop (or coke or soda depending on where you live). I even used fancy one way bottles obtained from my LHBS. 7.6 ABV

It was an extract recipe. 6# Light LME and 2# Corn Sugar, 1/2 # Roasted Barley steeping grains and 2 oz challenger hops (6o min). It was a partial boil, and I did not do a late LME addition. The following spices were added to the boil and boiled for 15 minutes: 1/2 t nutmeg, 1/4 t ground cloves, 1/2 T ground cinnamon. 1 t of plain supermarket brand vanilla extract was added at flameout.

The yeast was Muntons Gold. I mixed and aerated the dry yeast instead of sprinkling atop the wort per the instructions. Nor did I rehydrate. 13 days in Primary and then bottled, no secondary. The beer was kinda cloudy when i bottled it and I expected more trub in the bottom.

Why is my head fizzing away? are any of the spices I put in it a "head" killer? Should I have not aerated and mixed the wort after pitching the yeast?
(it should be noted I made an ESB later in Dec, and used the same Munton's Gold yeast but sprinkled it atop the wort after aeration and did not mix it in --- the head on that beer is outstanding..its creamy and 2 inches thick w/ lacing --- I admire it for a minute before I drink :cross

TIA
Dan

Just a guess but if there's oils in the vanilla extract it could be the culprit.

What are you washing your glasses with? Some soaps have oils too.

inre washing the glasses...same as always, my other beers hold the head all the same.

damdaman -- maybe the extract thing holds water, that's why the recipes I saw used vanilla bean, I thought they were just being fancy. Of course I didn't have any beans lying around

I would have to agree with the above poster about oil. If the head is disappearing as fast as pop then it sounds suspiciously like some kind of oil contaminate.

farting... farting is a definate head killer...

dficker said:

inre washing the glasses...same as always, my other beers hold the head all the same.

damdaman -- maybe the extract thing holds water, that's why the recipes I saw used vanilla bean, I thought they were just being fancy. Of course I didn't have any beans lying around

Click to expand...

I have read on here that vanilla extract (especially the cheap grocery store kind) can have oils in it that can affect head retention, but I don't have any personal experience with it. Apparently PURE vanilla extract is better, or the beans themselves.

I made a pumkin beer. Super caRbed head evaporates quickly. I believe its oils from spices.

I recently made a vanilla cream ale it had many ounces oF pure vanilla extract and has no issues with head retention.

The issue with real beans is they are very inconsistent from bean to bean

If you used artifical extract I don't know what's in it.

so less then 5 minutes is bad?

It's the nutmeg.