Improving Head Retention

[MikeRoberts]

I poured my first brew last night, after it has bottle conditioned for just about 3 weeks, as per recipe suggested. The head was nice right after the pour. Not too thick, but it slowly diminished to nothing after about a minute. The taste is good and all, but I want to retain that head in my brews. Some say it has to do with the soap used when cleaning brew pots, fermenters, etc... I've already bought a safe cleaner at the brew shop for the next batch, but I didn't think that was my issue. I was very crazy about cleaning and sanitizing.

Even though it says no rinse sanitizer, should I still rinse?

Also, has anyone used Carapils or Carafoam to improve head retention while preparing wort? This is just info I've read on other forums and articles.

Thanks!!

 

[BigMack]

Well it sounds like you have a fairly good idea already of the things that can cause bad head retention. Can you post the recipe that you made? That may help discern whether it was an ingredients related issue or if it was a procedural issue such as using soap on some things.

A few things that will definitely help are high AA hops in your recipe, some carapils or a little crystal malt, and a different mash schedule if you're doing AG brewing (although it being your first brew I'm assuming you're still doing extract).

 

[Denny]

Foam formation and retention is highly related to yeast and fermentation. If you do that right, you don't need carapils or anyting else. Ever had a Duvel? About the best beer foam in the world and nothing but pils malt and sugar. This article explains it and has tests you can do to see where your; prblems lie....

http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/35-head-retention/697-getting-good-beer-foam-techniques