Haldedrums
Active Member
By additions to add during the brew process to aid in head retention?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Head Retention
- Thread starter Haldedrums
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carapils, ftw. In my experience, oats have just the opposite effect (but do give a silky mouthfeel). Wheat is indeed helpful too. Also, hoppy beers always have great head retention.
cyclonite
Well-Known Member
Yep, oats have a high oil content and will kill head retention/formation, but carapils or wheat work great.
mrdauber64
Well-Known Member
Flaked barley is great for head retention!
warex
Well-Known Member
How much carapils would you need to add?
Generally about .5 pound is plenty, but if you're using other crystal malt you could use less.
Wow, tell that to my oats. I end up with a nice head that lasts all the way to the bottom when I use oats.
I'd like to know how that works. Honestly, I've had the worst retention when using them. I made two oatmeal stout batches that had this exact problem, then passed the recipe to my bro in calif and same there. Very odd. My other beers (including the excellent bopils I'm drinking now) never suffer in this respect.
discokid2k
Well-Known Member
How does the water affect the head retention? I live in an area with an unusually high water ph (7.7) and a high bicarbonate level (229ppm) and have started to add at least 4-8oz of a crystal malt + 4-8oz of carapils to help balance the carbonate and aid in head retention with noticable results but not anything like Ed's IPA. I would like to achieve more head retention.
I know the easy route is to stop using local water and go RO and build up but I try to wiggle around this with the darker/roasted malts, at least until I get a better understanding of water modification. Would switching the water source be more beneficial or up the crys/cara amounts+some wheat?
I try to keep the crys/cara to about 10% but I have never tried adding a few ounces of wheat either. What would the Yoop do?
Crystal malts/carapils will not have an effect on pH, so don't bother using them to "balance the carbonate". Acidulated malt, acid additions, or roast malts would, though, or RO water and building up would work too. You might also be able to boil your water and decant off of the precipitate or use campden tablets as well.
Wheat, carapils, and flaked barley all work well to aid head retention. I use a couple ounces of flaked barley from the bulk section at the supermarket myself with good results.
Not sure what effect high pH would have on head retention, but I doubt it would have any significant amount. What do others say?
Also, a zombie thread.
Wheat, carapils, and flaked barley all work well to aid head retention. I use a couple ounces of flaked barley from the bulk section at the supermarket myself with good results.
Not sure what effect high pH would have on head retention, but I doubt it would have any significant amount. What do others say?
Also, a zombie thread.
discokid2k
Well-Known Member
How much wheat do you use? Does this affect the final clarity of the beer? What is an "excessive" amount of cry/cara to use per batch? I know under 20% but is a lb of crystal malt overdoing a 6 gal run (OG in the 1.040-1.055 range)? I have been using about 1/2lb of cara/crystal (4oz each) per 5.5gal batch but I think I need to up it by a few ounces or change to wheat since the head is not as nice as others. My other motive for using crystal malts is to gain the flavor perceptions. Slowly been going up from 10l through the spectrum. I am currently on 60l moving up to 80L.
I thought I read somewhere that the pH does affect head retention but I couldnt find it and I spoke to the guys at AHB who confirmed that roasted malts, not crystal malts would help lower the pH. First thing is I will have to buy a better pH meter, I may be worried over nothing.
I just use a handful/couple ounces of flaked barley, but a lot of people use about 1/2 pound wheat as an adjunct to aid head retention.
