Hi,
In my quest to brew a better beer, one of the things I've been looking at lately is head retention. Now that I have five beers in my keezer, I've got a wide range to compare. My stout always has a nice head on it, but that's not really a fair comparison since it's on beer gas, so I'm ignoring that one in this post.
My IPA pours the nicest head of the CO2 beers - it laces nicely in the glass and lasts to the end. On the other side of the spectrum is my Irish Red - it starts with a nice head, but it sounds like a freshly poured Pepsi (lots of fizzing) and you can literally see the bubbles merge and burst. A few minutes later there is no head at all. My Scottish and Trappist ales fall somewhere in between.
The latest issue of Brew Your Own has a nice article on head retention. It gives a lot of detail on what helps and what hinders head retention in beer. For the rest of this post I'd like to gather your advise on what I can do to improve it in my beers. The article breaks the factors down into several categories; I'm focusing on some of these.
Cleanliness - Detergent, Grease or Soap Residues
Brewing Equipment- I am currently using Oxyclean Free (no dyes, perfumes, etc.) to clean my equipment. I know many of the powder cleansers are difficult to completely rinse away, so I try to rinse very thoroughly. However, I'm wondering if it's still leaving something behind. Is there a better cleaner to use that rinses better? Is there some kind of rinse aid to make sure the soap residue is gone, and does that add additional rinsing issues?
Glassware - I use Palmolive Pure + Clear (no fragrances or dyes) to wash my glasses, making sure to rinse them well. Is there anything else I can do to make sure the glasses are clean? One thing I don't do right now is chill the glasses; I might try putting them in the refrigerator for a while before using them - I'm guessing a 40 degree beer hitting a 75 degree glass isn't the best combination.
As long as I'm on the topic of glassware, I've noticed that my glasses are nice and clear after I wash them, but they start getting cloudy after they sit for a while. Any idea what causes that and is there a way to avoid it? I've tried storing them right side up as well as upside down.
Foam Reinforcers
Proteins - I brew partial mash, and one of the changes I've recently implemented is a late addition of the malt extract. The BYO article says that proteins in the beer help stabilize foam, and that extract brewing can reduce that, so a late addition is recommended. The Irish Red was the last beer I brewed, and I did hold back half the LME until the last ten minutes of the boil, but as I stated above, this beer has the worst head retention of my five.
Foam Reinforcers - I've noticed that when I plug my recipes into Beer Smith, many of the specialty grains included in the kits have the added advantage of improving head retention. The article mentions adding a small amount of flaked wheat or barley to reinforce the foam. I was wondering if any of you make additions like that and if small amounts have any impact on the flavor of the beer you are brewing?
Heading Agents
This part of the article was very interesting, reading about how commercial brewers have added everything from cobalt salts to sulfuric acid to try to increase head retention. The article says the only one still in use are alginates; they recommend trying propylene glycol alginate if you go this route. I was wondering if any of you have tried that, and if so, how well it works and if you find it impacts the beer's flavor at all?
That's pretty much everything I got from the article. Are there any other things I can try to improve the head retention on my beers?
Thanks as always for all your help!
In my quest to brew a better beer, one of the things I've been looking at lately is head retention. Now that I have five beers in my keezer, I've got a wide range to compare. My stout always has a nice head on it, but that's not really a fair comparison since it's on beer gas, so I'm ignoring that one in this post.
My IPA pours the nicest head of the CO2 beers - it laces nicely in the glass and lasts to the end. On the other side of the spectrum is my Irish Red - it starts with a nice head, but it sounds like a freshly poured Pepsi (lots of fizzing) and you can literally see the bubbles merge and burst. A few minutes later there is no head at all. My Scottish and Trappist ales fall somewhere in between.
The latest issue of Brew Your Own has a nice article on head retention. It gives a lot of detail on what helps and what hinders head retention in beer. For the rest of this post I'd like to gather your advise on what I can do to improve it in my beers. The article breaks the factors down into several categories; I'm focusing on some of these.
Cleanliness - Detergent, Grease or Soap Residues
Brewing Equipment- I am currently using Oxyclean Free (no dyes, perfumes, etc.) to clean my equipment. I know many of the powder cleansers are difficult to completely rinse away, so I try to rinse very thoroughly. However, I'm wondering if it's still leaving something behind. Is there a better cleaner to use that rinses better? Is there some kind of rinse aid to make sure the soap residue is gone, and does that add additional rinsing issues?
Glassware - I use Palmolive Pure + Clear (no fragrances or dyes) to wash my glasses, making sure to rinse them well. Is there anything else I can do to make sure the glasses are clean? One thing I don't do right now is chill the glasses; I might try putting them in the refrigerator for a while before using them - I'm guessing a 40 degree beer hitting a 75 degree glass isn't the best combination.
As long as I'm on the topic of glassware, I've noticed that my glasses are nice and clear after I wash them, but they start getting cloudy after they sit for a while. Any idea what causes that and is there a way to avoid it? I've tried storing them right side up as well as upside down.
Foam Reinforcers
Proteins - I brew partial mash, and one of the changes I've recently implemented is a late addition of the malt extract. The BYO article says that proteins in the beer help stabilize foam, and that extract brewing can reduce that, so a late addition is recommended. The Irish Red was the last beer I brewed, and I did hold back half the LME until the last ten minutes of the boil, but as I stated above, this beer has the worst head retention of my five.
Foam Reinforcers - I've noticed that when I plug my recipes into Beer Smith, many of the specialty grains included in the kits have the added advantage of improving head retention. The article mentions adding a small amount of flaked wheat or barley to reinforce the foam. I was wondering if any of you make additions like that and if small amounts have any impact on the flavor of the beer you are brewing?
Heading Agents
This part of the article was very interesting, reading about how commercial brewers have added everything from cobalt salts to sulfuric acid to try to increase head retention. The article says the only one still in use are alginates; they recommend trying propylene glycol alginate if you go this route. I was wondering if any of you have tried that, and if so, how well it works and if you find it impacts the beer's flavor at all?
That's pretty much everything I got from the article. Are there any other things I can try to improve the head retention on my beers?
Thanks as always for all your help!
