Inconsistent head

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rkymtn

rkymtn

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I recently brewed a wheat beer for my father-in-law. (Extract) He says taste and carbonation is consistently good. Some bottles have extreme head and some bottles have barely any head.

He is asking me why.......not complaining, he doesn't complain about free beer :).....just curious

Can anyone give me some advice to allow for more consistency in my brewing?
 
Many times it's due to residual soap film. Is he drinking it from the bottles or pouring it into a glass? Also, do you use dish soap to clean your reused bottles, buckets and carboys or a no rinse cleanser?
 
How did you mix in the priming sugar? The instructions I got were to boil it in a little water and pour that into the bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it for mixing but sometimes it didn't mix well. Now I start racking the beer as I let the water/sugar mix cool a bit and then add the sugar water to it and use a sanitized spoon to stir it in. Now my beers are all carbonated the same.
 
RM-MN said:
How did you mix in the priming sugar? The instructions I got were to boil it in a little water and pour that into the bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it for mixing but sometimes it didn't mix well. Now I start racking the beer as I let the water/sugar mix cool a bit and then add the sugar water to it and use a sanitized spoon to stir it in. Now my beers are all carbonated the same.
Click to expand...

Although the manner in which you add the mini wort should not make the difference I agree with the method RM-MN uses. From experience I have also witnessed sometimes inconsistent carbonation from "old school" method of adding the carbonation solution to the beer.

If you are going to add the sugar water and then stir, just ensure that you are completely sanitary when doing so.

Good luck!!

-WW
 
Thanks RM-MN, I did boil the priming sugar, let it cool, then poured it in the bottling bucket. I racked the beer from the fermentor on top of the priming solution.

I haven't used the method you described, mainly due to the concern of adding oxygen to the brew before it is bottled. My understanding is the stirring would cause oxygen which would taint the beer. Sorry, if my inexperience shows here....

It sounds like that is not a concern.....Am I understanding this correctly?
 
zzARzz, Yep, he is pouring into a glass. I told him about the concern with soap/rinsing agent residue. He has seen the same issue after hand rinsing his pint glasses.

Concerning my methods, I use PBW. No detergent soap or rinse agents in my resused bottles, carboys, etc. I also go an extra step and sterilize all my clean bottles in the oven. Mainly because I am anal about my sanitation......
 
rkymtn said:
zzARzz, Yep, he is pouring into a glass. I told him about the concern with soap/rinsing agent residue. He has seen the same issue after hand rinsing his pint glasses.

Concerning my methods, I use PBW. No detergent soap or rinse agents in my resused bottles, carboys, etc. I also go an extra step and sterilize all my clean bottles in the oven. Mainly because I am anal about my sanitation......
Click to expand...

Maybe try grabbing 3 or 4 of his glasses and wash them in PBW to see if the heads are consistent after that (or even just ask him to polish the glasses with a clean dish towel).

I had a similar heading issue with my honey wheat (great in the bottle, no head in the glass) due to hand washing. Polishing the glasses seemed to work for me.
 
So what you are saying is that your father is complaining about the inconsistent head that you are giving him? :p
 
rkymtn said:
Thanks RM-MN, I did boil the priming sugar, let it cool, then poured it in the bottling bucket. I racked the beer from the fermentor on top of the priming solution.

I haven't used the method you described, mainly due to the concern of adding oxygen to the brew before it is bottled. My understanding is the stirring would cause oxygen which would taint the beer. Sorry, if my inexperience shows here....

It sounds like that is not a concern.....Am I understanding this correctly?
Click to expand...

I try to keep the sugar water from splashing as I add it and I stir slowly so I'm just mixing and not adding oxygen. Every so often I forget this step and those batches usually have at least one bottle overcarbonated to the point where they want to give either a big head or want to foam out of the bottle.
 
I had the same issue, and was thinking the racking was taking forever, so I got a 1/2" racking cane and both issues were resolved. Without stirring, all batches were consistant after the switch. Also the cap on the bottom is taller, I get more beer out without sediment
 

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