oxygen absorbing caps and head retention

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DSumner44

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I just opened three different beers ranging in time spent in the bottle from 23 days to 40 days at 68 degrees and they all seem to be lacking big time in head retention. The pour out of the bottle resulted in little to no head development. The three beers poured were: Blonde (40 days in bottle), Hefeweizen (23 days), and Tripel (26 days). The beers are all carbonated, however slightly undercarbed, but like I said, no head developed.

One common thread is that they were all bottled with oxygen absorbing caps. I have not had a problem with head retention before using 'normal' caps. Has anyone else noticed or seen documented that oxygen absorbing caps may kill your beer's head retention? Or will this be solved by simply storing the beer at room temperature for another couple weeks?
 
it may just be an undercarbonation issue due to the fact that they weren't chilled long enough.

a lot more CO2 is soluble in cold beer than in warm beer. even the beers that were chilled for 4 hours didn't really have the right amount of time to allow the beer to adsorb all the CO2 from the headspace.

try chilling them for a day or 2 to allow them to carbonate properly and see if you still have this problem.
 
Here's another for try chilling longer.

I put 2 sample bottles in the fridge after 1 week in the bottle, drank one 1 day later. Had really really weak carbing. Forgot the other for the whole week (1 week @65, 1 week in fridge) and I popped that one and it had really good carb going and tasted excellent.

Couple days ago I put a 6 pack in the fridge (now 2 weeks @ 65) so I'd have some for my days off. After 12 hours (after work) I had one, weak ass carb. 24 hours, weak ass carb but better. So maybe on my last day off (~36-48 hours) I'll have 3 carbed beers. ;/


Edit: Forgot to mention, out of the 5 or 6 of my beers I've drank only 1 had ANY head or lacing as I drank it. If you guessed it was the one chilled for 1 week you got it right.
 
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