Very little head with PET bottles

Made an American Brown that's been bottled for about 3 weeks, used 12 and 22 oz amber glass and some 500ml amber PET bottles. They all went thru the same sanitizing process, 1 dishwasher cycle on the sanitize option with no soap, followed by an immediate Starsan solution rinse.

The glass bottles have carbed up beautifully and have a big tan head and good retention. The PET bottles have almost no head, even with an exaggerated vigorous pour; just a thin bit of head, tho it does stick around for the entire glass.

I bear down hard on the caps and need to use a shirt tail to get them off, so I don't think it's that they aren't on tight enough.

Oddly, my first batch carbed up pretty well, and I'm not reusing caps yet. Only difference I think is that I didn't use the dishwasher the first time.

Any advice would be great, I like the PET bottles, but not a crappy looking pour with no head.

My guess would be a tiny bit of residual dishwasher soap was stuck in the bottles. I could see it clinging to plastic more easily than to glass.

Kaotica said:

They all went thru the same sanitizing process, 1 dishwasher cycle on the sanitize option with no soap, followed by an immediate Starsan solution rinse.

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you doing too much, as they would say in parts of oakland. if you rinse the bottle right after you pour it out then put them on a bottle tree or something to air dry then sanitizing is as simple as a shot of starsan. the dishwasher ad starsan combo does not mean doubly sanitized. if you simplify your process then troubleshooting problems is easier too.

Dish detergent sticks to plastic way too easily, and no dishwasher is ever really clean. You could run it empty for a half dozen cycles, and still end up with residue from the hundreds of previous cycles (during which most people use more detergent than they really need anyway, as the manufacturer instructs more than you really need for sanitization, to somehow make up for lack of scrubbing action)
Glass doesn't bond to soap, so it cleans more easily and fully.

bovineblitz said:

My guess would be a tiny bit of residual dishwasher soap was stuck in the bottles. I could see it clinging to plastic more easily than to glass.

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bovineblitz hit it. Residual soap or jet dry solution.

I have notice head issues with my glasses right out of the dish washer. I quick rinse before pouring a beer in take care of this. If you pop them in the dishwasher in the future rinse then sanitize in some starsan and all should be well.

Thanks, appreciate the hints. I do clean all my bottles well immediately after pouring, so I'll keep them covered and go with a good StarSan rinse on bottling days. Thanks again!