Head but no Lace?

I've become totally obsessed with 8B and am on a quest to brew the perfect special/best bitter (to my palette) and beyond taste appearance is very important to me to. I love a beer that can retain some foam for 30+ minutes and leaves gorgeous lace all the way down the pint glass.

My last batch had 0.5# carapils and I mashed at 159F, I also controlled fermentation temperatures, and pitched a properly sized starter in an effort to encourage foam positive traits and discourage foam negative traits. While the beer has only been in bottles for two weeks and is obviously still green it is heavenly. I let a bottle sit in the fridge for 2 days and poured it right down the middle. I then purposely drank the beer slowly over the course of an hour and there was still foam on top of the last sip! Head retention; check!

I was however disappointed to see no lace anywhere on the glass though. This pint glass had not been in the dishwasher and was cleaned and dried with nothing but plenty of good cold water. Searches here on lace turn up virtually nothing. Does anyone have any idea how I can have such amazing head retention without any lacing? What if anything can I do to get some lacing in the next batch?

Thanks,
ChemE

UMMM, GEEEZ. That's a tough one, and I can definitely associate with it! I have some that lace wonderfully and others that don't, even with a great head... Cara-Pils is in all of these too. 1/2 lb. per 5 gallons. One thing I have found though is the beers that do lace have much smaller bubbles in the head. My ESB's & APA's are usually that way. My IPA's & IIPA's lace wonderfully, in fact, I can pour them down the side with hardly any head and they build one on their own. Higher alcohol?? More hops?? Experts?????

More protein helps head and lacing. I will often use wheat in place of carapils for this reason.

Dextrin from carapils tends to contribute more straight head retention.

I know this is common knowledge but I think you need to evaluate it when it is 4 weeks in the bottle. The foam should change over time and the size of the bubbles should get smaller and tighter which will help with the lacing.

Maybe try a quick protein rest at 122F for 10 min or add a little torrified wheat or flaked barley for some more protein.

Blender said:

I know this is common knowledge but I think you need to evaluate it when it is 4 weeks in the bottle. The foam should change over time and the size of the bubbles should get smaller and tighter which will help with the lacing.

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Well that's an easy fix. It didn't occur to me that the tendency to lace or not would change with time. It was going to age 2 more weeks anyway before cold conditioning so I'll keep this thread updated as time goes on. I'm brewing again next weekend so if anyone else has other suggestions as to how to encourage lace I'm happy to hear them.

dstar26t said:

Maybe try a quick protein rest at 122F for 10 min or add a little torrified wheat or flaked barley for some more protein.

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I'm not sure this would be helpful. I already have great clarity and head retention it just doesn't stick to the side of the glass. What would be gained by breaking down some of the longer proteins into shorter proteins?

ChemE said:

I'm not sure this would be helpful. I already have great clarity and head retention it just doesn't stick to the side of the glass. What would be gained by breaking down some of the longer proteins into shorter proteins?

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Nothing, unless you're using a large percentage of long-chain proteins from unmalted adjuncts.

Everything else aside, you said you drank it deliberately slow, but it seems to me that I see more lacing when I take bigger gulps... My thinking is this way the foam has a longer way to travel before reuniting with the liquid and thus more of a chance to stick to the sides.

JumboBlimpJumbo said:

Everything else aside, you said you drank it deliberately slow, but it seems to me that I see more lacing when I take bigger gulps... My thinking is this way the foam has a longer way to travel before reuniting with the liquid and thus more of a chance to stick to the sides.

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Entirely possible. I'm not a gulper so I don't get the nice little lace rings around my glass.

lamarguy said:

Nothing, unless you're using a large percentage of long-chain proteins from unmalted adjuncts.

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Nope; posting the grain bill can't hurt though:

2.24% DME (starter; yes I include my starter since I pitch the whole thing as per Jamil)
71.64% Maris Otter
8.96% Crystal 10
5.97% Biscuit
5.97% Carapils
2.99% Special B
2.24% Corn Sugar (bottle priming)

ChemE said:

Entirely possible. I'm not a gulper so I don't get the nice little lace rings around my glass.

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It would be a pretty easy experiment to try though. BTW, I'm a ChemE major right now at the University of Oklahoma.

JumboBlimpJumbo said:

It would be a pretty easy experiment to try though. BTW, I'm a ChemE major right now at the University of Oklahoma.

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Easy, tasty, and relaxing. ChemE is the best damn major on the planet! Who else gets to put shaft work into strippers and blow stuff up as part of their 9 to 5?