Malted Wheat?

Is malted Wheat used in ales, Pretty much just for the improvement of head and body flavour? Does it have to be mashed or Steeped. I was thinking of a good recipie and I have found that all of my brews have no head, Is malted wheat the right path and if so how much?

Head retention can be affected by some sanitizers - If you washed the glass you are pouring it into in the dishwasher with Cascade (I've picked up on this in the past) and/or you use Jet Dry it will kill any head retention you ever had any hopes of ever having.

Soak all your beer glasses in VERY hot water and then rinse the hell out of them with very warm water - NO SOAPS OF ANY KIND!!! And then never put your beer glasses in the dishwasher again and don't use Dawn to wash them either. Just rinse several times with very hot water and let them drip dry - your done.

"Foam" from a beer just comes - soaps or sanitizers are one thing that kills it. The fact that NONE of your brews have had a head on them makes me think it's something you use to clean or sanitize with - not your brews. No amount of additions is going to help and would be a futile attempt.

Yep, malted wheat is used by some people to improve or enhance their head retention, but not create it. IMO it really does a minimal job at this, anyways. There are other factors such as cleanliness which dc mentions which are much more important.

Ya'll,

Very interesting that head, head retention, and carbonation,
are different concepts.
I never really thought about it.
After 15 years brewing I am just begining to develop an acute awarness of hops and their varying effects on ale.

'Sanitizers having an effect on head retention'.
Wow. Thats a new one.
I don't wash my beer glasses unless someone else drinks out of them.
Or unless they get to where you can't see the insides any more because of the 'dirt glaze'.
And 'Dawn' made my hands dry out so bad
that I needed to buy hand lotion.
Good for washing the 'quenching oil' and 'forge soot'
off knives after quenching and before putting them in the tempering oven.
But hard on ones skin.
I just stopped using Dawn, 'a false economy',
and use Ivory again, and when they do get washed,
I rinse them very well.

But the concept that 'head' and 'carbonation',
are two different things is interesting in that
I have seen pictures of a waitress in Germany, with great big tits,
serving biers, three in each hand,
with a head on them 3-4" high.
I remember thinking Hmmm...
Too much carbonation, I wonder how the german folk can stand it.
It would bust my gut.
Must be for the tourists.

But if head and carbonation are not the same thing,
I can have a nice head on my ale without all the gut ache pain,
belches and farts.
Hmmm,
I have learned something new and important.
Knowledge comes in bunches, don't it?


J. Knife
and his world famous coon dog...
'Sandymay'.
{She's asleep on my bed right now}
It was too muddy to hunt last night

That explains alot. I use that pink sanitizer on everything when i brew. And I also use it to Sanitize my bottles just before the beer goes in. But i do rinse the heck out of the bottles with water as hot as i can get it. and then i rinse them again while the are still hanging on the botle rack.

Is there a better way of sanitizing bottles just before bottling? And What do most guys use for sanitizing their equipment?

While I tend to agree with cleaning of glassware I do not think that is the whole story on foam. I have gotten nice foaming and it can last for a quite a bit with my glassware that came from the dishwasher. Read this article and see if anything is familiar in your process or something that you can improve upon. > http://***********/departments/1410.html

Jason Dude,

Howdy, Idophor is 'my' sanitizer of choice,
especially after using bleach for 10 years.
My ale has a head on it sometimes.
And other times 'It don't'.
Now, I lean my glass way over to the near horizonal in order to start pouring the ale in the frozen glass without causing so much foam that I have to stop pouring and let it subside.
I actually try to minimize the foam so to get all the ale in the glass.
My ale is not too carbonated however, and with 3/4 cup of priming sugar were it not for the white spent yeast cells in the bottom of the bottle,
I could comfortably drink my Hammerbier out of the bottle.

And each bottle of ale has its own unique characteristics,
one bottle will foam more and the next will foam less.
One may be a little off flavor while the next is a perfect creation of genius.
And speaking of sanitizers,
MY HANDS... soaked in the idophor water,
5 minutes!
make for a better flavored ale than anything else I can think of.
The bottling hose and reracking cane touch my hands many times during
bottling. And I am sure if glassware, and plastic needs 15 minutes soaking in the idophor water, my hands are the source of most of the foul off flavors I have ever noticed in my brews


Bottled '48' bottles yesterday and will
bottle {and rerack} again today.
170 bottles full.
And 25 gallons in primarys and secondarys.
I am trying for 200 gallons this winter ya'll.


Keep your heads down

and don't get none on ya

J. Winters Knife

and sweet Sandymay