How do I increase head retention in Root Beer?

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HebrewedsoIbrew

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I've recently found an excellent recipe for Root Beer and although it tastes great it has no head at all, I was wondering if anyone knows anything on or about this subject as it will be very helpful.

I've heard that cream of tarter helps out but I've had no luck with it at all, if anyone could explain that I'll be very appreciative as well
 
from what i've read and i've never brewed any root beer yet. But I read its the different types of sugar, I'm waiting for room in my kegerator before I can make some but have all the ingredients for this recipe which I hear has a really good mouth feel due to the honey, maltodextrin, brown sugar and cane sugar as the sweetness in it I bought a case of zatarains extract which is why I was looking at the zatarains recipes and stumbled upon this recipe.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebr...in-s-root-beer-non-alcoholic-keg-instructions
 
xhw21x said:
from what i've read and i've never brewed any root beer yet. But I read its the different types of sugar, I'm waiting for room in my kegerator before I can make some but have all the ingredients for this recipe which I hear has a really good mouth feel due to the honey, maltodextrin, brown sugar and cane sugar as the sweetness in it I bought a case of zatarains extract which is why I was looking at the zatarains recipes and stumbled upon this recipe.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebr...in-s-root-beer-non-alcoholic-keg-instructions
Click to expand...
Interesting, I've never tried anymore than one sugar at a time, I will have to give this a try one day, thanks!
 
Crazy8 said:
Maltodextrin is used for adding body and wintergreen helps with head retention.
Click to expand...

I've got a question for you sir, how have you discovered wintergreen helps with head retention? I just picked a ton of it today and made a batch of Root Beer with it, and I was wondering how much I should of used to help the head retention?
 
a little goes a long way. I typically make batches of 5 gallons. I use about 2.5 gallons on the stove and I use 2.5 gallons of cold water to cool it all down when I pour it into my bucket. Anyway, I will only use .5 oz of wintergreen. You may want to experiment more to get what you're looking for, but this seems to be perfect for me. This quantity also seems to keep it from getting an overly minty flavor. I seem to notice a little in the background, but it is very subtle, and to some it may be undetectable.
 
Crazy8 said:
a little goes a long way. I typically make batches of 5 gallons. I use about 2.5 gallons on the stove and I use 2.5 gallons of cold water to cool it all down when I pour it into my bucket. Anyway, I will only use .5 oz of wintergreen. You may want to experiment more to get what you're looking for, but this seems to be perfect for me. This quantity also seems to keep it from getting an overly minty flavor. I seem to notice a little in the background, but it is very subtle, and to some it may be undetectable.
Click to expand...
Thanks mate, and about the head retention?
 
Oh yeah, I forgot how to mention how I discovered that. Well, I didn't really. I cam across it somewhere, probably in here somewhere, and I tried it out. Worked great. i think the next time I may try .25 oz. I have been using .5 oz for quite sometime now, but I am just curious how only .25 oz will compare.
 
Crazy8 said:
Oh yeah, I forgot how to mention how I discovered that. Well, I didn't really. I cam across it somewhere, probably in here somewhere, and I tried it out. Worked great. i think the next time I may try .25 oz. I have been using .5 oz for quite sometime now, but I am just curious how only .25 oz will compare.
Click to expand...

Sounds pretty interesting, I'm interested to hear how it works out, I used about a little over 1/4 cup of wintergreen. For this batch I'm letting it ferment to about 2-3 % Alcohol to see how it turns out, it tasted amazing before I pitched yeast into it so I'm excited to see how this one turns out.
 
The recipe I've tried for hard root beer used lactose (8oz for a 2 gallon batch) to improve smoothness and head retention. I will say the end result was really smooth and has ridiculous amounts of head retention. I'm going to reduce the amount slightly in my next batch.

My LBHS also recommends the maltodextrin for head retention in their soda recipes.
 
1oz of torifed wheat in your boil will ad body and head retention. You'll never taste it.
 

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