Berliner Weisse carbonation/Head Retention

[DENBrewer]

Brewed my third batch of Berliner Weisse about 3-4 months ago. I kegged it 3 weeks ago and cranked the pressure to 22 psi. At 36 degrees, this should be pretty highly carbonated (3.6 volumes of CO2).

The problem I'm having is that it doesn't seem very carbonated and there is almost no head retention.

There are bubble coming up from bottom and the CO2 is hooked up to another keg that is carbonated fine. My initial thought is that the poor head retention is fooling my taste buds. Maybe I'm not perceiving the carbonation because of this? Anyone else have carbonation problems with BW? Any other theories?

 

[smagee]

Well, poor retention could be caused by a dirty glass, dirty dispensing lines, or something being off with the beer itself. Have you cleaned the tap dispensing system recently? If only one tap is having the issue so far, that'd be my first guess, especially since it sounds like the carbonation is present (due to the rising bubbles).

There could also be a slow leak in that particular gas line, although I'd expect you to notice that your gas is running out rather quickly if that were the case.

 

[DENBrewer]

Well I cleaned the line before this keg but maybe my cleaning regimen isn't good enough. Here's what I do normally:
1) Push 1-2 gallons warm oxyclean solution through the line.
2) Push 1-2 gallons tap water through the line
3) Push 1-2 gallons Star San solution through the line.

Maybe I need to get in there with a pipe cleaner and see if I'm missing something. Maybe tonight I'll just try a freshly cleaned picnic tap to see if that helps.

Thanks

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Sour beers never have good head retention.

 

[user 341102]

Reviving an old thread. I’ve experienced this, too. Since I’m planning to keg a Berliner soon, I’ve been thinking about this. It’s well known that acid causes protein to precipitate and settle out of solution. In fact, it’s a common lab method for removing protein from a solution. I think this might be a major cause of poor head retention in sour beers. Despite the high protein content of wheat, it’s likely these settle out at the bottom of the fermenter due to the low pH and can’t aid in head retention. The low hopping rate means hop compounds don’t contribute to head retention either. Just a thought

 

[user 341102]

https://www.mbaa.com/meetings/archi...have the least,is considerably higher than 4.

Found this interesting abstract whichever explores the effect of pH on both clarity and foam of beer. Looks like pH modulates protein-polyphenol interactions, too. It’s not all due to the isoelectric point like I proposed