Big Krausen = Good Head?

remilard said:

Certain molecular weight proteins are foam positive (but not the only foam positive compounds in beer, eg some hop derived phenols are foam positive).

So you could say, accurately I think, that a beer with a lot of foam positive material would tend to produce more krausen, all else being equal. However I think the dominating factor in krausen size is the vigor of co2 evolution, as that is what brings foam positive material out of solution forming foam.

An interesting but probably not very important fact is that once these foam positive materials come out of solution to form krausen or beer foam, they do not go back in solution and so are effectively lost. Therefore it is probably also accurate to say that all else being equal, a lot of krausen would reduce the amount of foam positive material in the finished beer and reduce foam stability. However, I think this is a pretty minor and insignificant effect.

So bottom line, I would say you can glean about zero information about the foam stability of the finished beer by observing the krausen.

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remilard said:

An interesting but probably not very important fact is that once these foam positive materials come out of solution to form krausen or beer foam, they do not go back in solution and so are effectively lost. Therefore it is probably also accurate to say that all else being equal, a lot of krausen would reduce the amount of foam positive material in the finished beer and reduce foam stability. However, I think this is a pretty minor and insignificant effect.

So bottom line, I would say you can glean about zero information about the foam stability of the finished beer by observing the krausen.

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remilard said:

An interesting but probably not very important fact is that once these foam positive materials come out of solution to form krausen or beer foam, they do not go back in solution and so are effectively lost.

Click to expand...

menschmaschine said:

Ahh... ol' Lost Foam issue. Apart from an article by Chris Colby and a post by Cargill Malt on ProBrewer (neither of which explain the science behind it), I've not seen evidence that this is true. Noonan states albuminous matter is reabsorbed into solution due to the alcohol content. I imagine that if the proteins combine with phenols or other compounds, they may not be reabsorbed, but the foam positive proteins that are independent of ulterior chemical bonds should be reabsorbed for the most part.

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remilard said:

Why doesn't the beer reabsorb break material?

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BargainFittings said:

I'll add a real world observation that my head retention and volume of foam on my finished beers have steadily improved with each quality improvement of my process.

The improvements are fermentation temperature control, fresh quality ingredients, proper mash temps, good rolling boil, balanced keg carbonation and consistent brewing process in general.

Wayne.

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