How Much Head for Wheat?

[Clint Yeastwood]

How much head should a wheat beer have?

I'm still trying to get my carbonation, beer lines, and faucets right. I have had some trouble with trub clogging things up and distorting my perception when I try to adjust things. Frustrating. I guess I should move to floating dip tubes and start whirlpooling.

Back when I used to drink Spaten crystal weiss, the foam was pretty extreme. On the other hand, unless my memory is even worse than I think, I don't believe I got anything like as much foam with Celis White and Hoegaarden.

The beer I'm fooling with now is around 75% wheat, and the FG is about 1.011, down from 1.056. I have the keezer at 38 degrees.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I cleaned out the faucet. Crumbs of hops were stopping it up. From now on, I will listen less to people who say dry-hopping in the keg is a good idea.

I opened the keg up and stuck a floating dip tube in it. I suppose this is the way to go from here on out.

 

[day_trippr]

Good you sorted out the problem. I've done some keg hopping but always with whole cones in sanitized muslin bags - less likely to escape than pellet mush in a nylon bag.

As for head, I'm happy to have the same 1-1.5 fingers of foam atop a 12 ounce pour of a wheat beer as a barley beer. Some head is nice for the immediate aroma contribution but I'm more about keeping carbonation in the beer for those times I'm slow sipping them

Cheers!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Here is what I think. First, when you return to brewing after a long time, you get a wonderful opportunity to make rookie mistakes all over again. Second, I think some of what I thought was a disease's contribution to the flavor problems with the beer was really the taste of yeast and hops being sucked from the bottom of the keg.

My only other beer doesn't taste quite right, either, so I don't think trub is the only problem.