Odd mouth feel, no head......

Hey all my batch had been in bottles for about 5 weeks before I sampled. Anyways poured a couple this weekend and my first issue is no head, and I mean no head, not even foam when poured. It is carbonated well, I'd even too much for a Stout.

I do not notice any real off-flavors other than being sweet.

The other issue is an "odd" mouth feel. It's creamy I as I expected it to be, but almost too creamy, and very "mouth coating" to quote the handy flavor chart.

On a side note I did have an issue with not being able to get the FG down below 1.030, even after added more yeast, shaking, letting it set for another week, keeping it at 70ish degrees to restart fermentation, etc.....

It does taste very good, if I make it again I will probably use less Lactose and Malto-dextrine. Here is the recipe.

6 Lbs Light Extract (I used Briess Light DME)
1.5 Lbs. 40 L Crystal Malt
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt
8.0 oz Roasted Barley
4.0 oz Malto-Dextrin powder
8.0 oz Lactose
7.0 HBU's Northern Brewer hops (60 minute boil)
1.0 tsp. Irish Moss (20 minutes)
5 g Nottingham Yeast (rehydrated in preboiled 90F water)

The instructions stated to ferment at 65F, do to hardware, space restrictions I was able to keep it at about 70-72F.

Obviously soap residue can destroy a head, but so can some other compounds.
As for the high fg, where did your ABV end up? if it was too high for your yeast, that could be the problem. What was the OG?

The OG was thrown out due to the fact I took a sample before thoroughly mixing the wort The OG was something stupid like 1.028, I just scribbled it down on my log, shook the carboy and threw it in the bath tub to start fermenting. It wasn't until after that I checked the OG against what the recipe said it should be that I noticed the erroneous OG, it was my first batch so I said screw it.

An issue with the lack of head may also be that I dishwashed the bottles, I was wondering if there weer other issues that would cause zero head to form.

The finished Stout out of the bottle is not yeasty at all, but it is carbonated, So I do not think lack of yeast is an issue. During the stuck fermentation debacle I pitched a second 5g pack of Nottingham which started to ferment for a few hours, but again stopped....

I thought this was gonna be a thread about marital difficulties. Misleading!

I "dishwasher" my bottles religiously, but with very little soap. As for the yeast viability, I follow your logic there.
The mouth feel may be a result of too much lactose or malto dextrin I suppose although I am hardly an expert on those.

Evan! said:

I thought this was gonna be a thread about marital difficulties. Misleading!

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You saw through my cunning plan! I had get folks to read it somehow!

cheezydemon said:

I "dishwasher" my bottles religiously, but with very little soap. As for the yeast viability, I follow your logic there.
The mouth feel may be a result of too much lactose or malto dextrin I suppose although I am hardly an expert on those.

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I did not uses soap but I know there was no spot solution in the reservoir so I'm wondering if that may have been the cause.

I'm more in favor of adding lactose/dextrins just before bottling. You basically saw the affects of too many non fermentables. My first stout suffered in the same way. Too cloying.

Evan! said:

I thought this was gonna be a thread about marital difficulties. Misleading!

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Bow chicka bow wow

Whiskey® said:

...I did not uses soap but I know there was no spot solution in the reservoir so I'm wondering if that may have been the cause.

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That will certainly kill any possiblity of a head on your beer, so that would explain that.

The mouthfeel issue I would say is a result of combining lactose with maltodextrin, that would make for a pretty chewy beer. I'm with Bobby_M with adding those at bottling time in a boiled solution just like your priming sugar (but add BEFORE that). That way you can add a bit, stir it in and check that it's getting to be the way you want it. Way too easy to overdo it with those two ingredients.

bradsul said:

That will certainly kill any possiblity of a head on your beer, so that would explain that.

The mouthfeel issue I would say is a result of combining lactose with maltodextrin, that would make for a pretty chewy beer. I'm with Bobby_M with adding those at bottling time in a boiled solution just like your priming sugar (but add BEFORE that). That way you can add a bit, stir it in and check that it's getting to be the way you want it. Way too easy to overdo it with those two ingredients.

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I figure that may be the cause, I've had pretty chewy beers (various oatmeal stouts and some creams) but man this one takes the prize.