best grain for foam?

[MaxStout]

I can believe that. I still hand wash all my beer glasses with logos though, as I'm afraid they'll fade away faster over time vs hand washing. No print glasses go in the washer.

I can attest to that. My wife got a commemorative mug from her HS reunion last summer. After a half dozen machine washes, the printing was completely gone.

 

[rlrohan]

I can believe that. I still hand wash all my beer glasses with logos though, as I'm afraid they'll fade away faster over time vs hand washing. No print glasses go in the washer.

I think it is best to hand wash the logo glasses also. I bought a few glasses at a tavern I used to go to long ago. One side had Miller Lite on it and the opposite side had a football player on it. After a few runs through the dishwasher the beer logo was still there but the football player was washing away. (Same could be said of the team, "The Bears"). All of the glasses from brewery tours are still good even though they went through the dishwasher a few times. I guess you can never tell the quality of ink until it's too late.

 

[Halfakneecap]

Yes, definately different for glasses with logos.

 

[hottpeper13]

I hand wash mine because they get etched in the dishwasher. Nothing worse then a cloudy glass when drinking clear beer!

 

[Slim M]

Same for this aging family man. I have one recipe that's over 5% and I'm working to get it down to 4.5 or so. Other than that one, everything I brew is either a mild under 4% or in the 4.2-4.5% sweet spot. I like to have a few and just don't tolerate alcohol like I used to.

Yeah my beers are ranging from 4.3 - 5.5%. The biggest beer I’ve brewed in a few years is a 5.8 % Agave Dunkel kind of thing lagering/carbing away right now.

I mash high 156-158f so the attenuation is always lower but the body is full and I think this helps with my foam some maybe. I never get huge amounts of foam but it does hang about well like I like to see. I guess I taste with my eyes a bit

 

[Halfakneecap]

Yeah my beers are ranging from 4.3 - 5.5%. The biggest beer I’ve brewed in a few years is a 5.8 % Agave Dunkel kind of thing lagering/carbing away right now.

I mash high 156-158f so the attenuation is always lower but the body is full and I think this helps with my foam some maybe. I never get huge amounts of foam but it does hang about well like I like to see. I guess I taste with my eyes a bit

Im about to keg a 2.3% lager. First one that low. I did do a 2.5% stout, it was pretty good.

Bit of a health kick, I’ve played around recently with light beer once during the week and once on weekends. Much better than NA beers.

There’s a few commercial beers around 2.2% here, all lagers. I don’t mind them to be honest. I figure If I feel like a beer midweek I’ll drink the low alcohol beer then weekend, standard strength, which for me is usually 3.5- 4.5%.

 

[Slim M]

What l

Im about to keg a 2.3% lager. First one that low. I did do a 2.5% stout, it was pretty good.

Bit of a health kick, I’ve played around recently with light beer once during the week and once on weekends. Much better than NA beers.

There’s a few commercial beers around 2.2% here, all lagers. I don’t mind them to be honest. I figure If I feel like a beer midweek I’ll drink the low alcohol beer then weekend, standard strength, which for me is usually 3.5- 4.5%.

What low abv beers you finding in your area? Back in the day we had Pearl a mass produced macro with a low abv.

 

[Halfakneecap]

What l


What low abv beers you finding in your area? Back in the day we had Pearl a mass produced macro with a low abv.

Im in Australia. There used to be ( 90's ) full strength ( 4.5-5% ), or Light ( 2.5% ), but these days, midstrength ( 3.5% ) beers are super popular, so there aren't many light beers around.

If i'm out, i generally drink mid, unless i see a decent craft beer. But even they are all over the "Little" XPA/HAZY/LAGER etc.

 

[Broothru]

It can affect it. Try shutting off the rinse aid dispenser and running the dishwasher with detergent only. Unfortunately, some dishwashers don't allow that override--like mine.

So I wash barware by hand with hot water and dish soap, then rinse well. Wipe dry with a lint-free bar towel.

+1, but it's not always easy getting a dish town down inside a 200 ml Kolner stange. And I've been drinking a lot of Kolsch lately!

 

[Broothru]

Yeah my beers are ranging from 4.3 - 5.5%. The biggest beer I’ve brewed in a few years is a 5.8 % Agave Dunkel kind of thing lagering/carbing away right now.

I mash high 156-158f so the attenuation is always lower but the body is full and I think this helps with my foam some maybe. I never get huge amounts of foam but it does hang about well like I like to see. I guess I taste with my eyes a bit

I've always believed that the sign of a well-crafted beer is clarity in a clean glass accompanied by 'notches' in the residual foam ring that lasts on the inside of the glass until the final sip. I always heard that the best way to achieve that goal was with a :15 minute mashout @178F at the end of a Hoch-Kurz step mash.

In my current Kolsch project I'm searching for a way to get superior thick foam without sacrificing clarity, so light hand on the wheat malt. But what else could give Kolsch that remarkable white frothy head? Chit malt? Spelt? I know the shape and diameter of a traditional stange contribute to the foam cap, but there's got to be more to it than just that. I'm finalizing my test grist bills and need some help figuring out what does and doesn't work.

 

[Slim M]

I've always believed that the sign of a well-crafted beer is clarity in a clean glass accompanied by 'notches' in the residual foam ring that lasts on the inside of the glass until the final sip. I always heard that the best way to achieve that goal was with a :15 minute mashout @178F at the end of a Hoch-Kurz step mash.

In my current Kolsch project I'm searching for a way to get superior thick foam without sacrificing clarity, so light hand on the wheat malt. But what else could give Kolsch that remarkable white frothy head? Chit malt? Spelt? I know the shape and diameter of a traditional stange contribute to the foam cap, but there's got to be more to it than just that. I'm finalizing my test grist bills and need some help figuring out what does and doesn't work.

Possibly natural carbonation. I don’t know fore sure but it seems like if I keg & prime the head is more stable or has more endurance if you will.

Sadly I’m lazy and force carbing is way too easy so I don’t naturally carb much. I have done it with a can a Proper Starter a few times and it worked well.

 

[Broothru]

Possibly natural carbonation. I don’t know fore sure but it seems like if I keg & prime the head is more stable or has more endurance if you will.

Sadly I’m lazy and force carbing is way too easy so I don’t naturally carb much. I have done it with a can a Proper Starter a few times and it worked well.

Pretty much everything I brew gets spunded, and honestly they all display good mouthfeel and body. What I'm looking for in this Kolsch project is something with a thick, stubborn white cap (bordering on whipped cream?). Well, maybe not that extreme. But you get the idea...

 

[MaxStout]

+1, but it's not always easy getting a dish town down inside a 200 ml Kolner stange. And I've been drinking a lot of Kolsch lately!

 

[Broothru]

View attachment 871518

Even that might not be able to compress enough to fit in my 200 ml stangen. But it could be useful in cleaning up the mess I’ll make trying to achieve my desired level of frothy foam cap.

 

[Slim M]

Pretty much everything I brew gets spunded, and honestly they all display good mouthfeel and body. What I'm looking for in this Kolsch project is something with a thick, stubborn white cap (bordering on whipped cream?). Well, maybe not that extreme. But you get the idea...

Have you thought of investing in a side pull Lukr?

 

[JohnDBrewer]

What I'm looking for in this Kolsch project is something with a thick, stubborn white cap (bordering on whipped cream?)

I use about 8oz of wheat and 4oz of carafoam (not carapils), always get a great billowing head in my Kolsch. The next time I brew my kolsch I'm going exclude the carafoam to see the effect. Also, this small amount of wheat, drops completely clear, but I cold crash (also drop this temp slowly) to 30 degrees and let it sit for a week or two before kegging.

 

[Broothru]

After comparing yeasts, I’ve decided on two (possibly three) to use in competing grist bills. I’ve come up with four recipes for grist that combine traditional Kolsch hops and grains, two of which contain wheat and carafoam. It’ll be interesting to see how the wheat+carafoam perform together.

I’ve been wanting to try chit malt in place of wheat in one recipe, but have never used it before. A good Kolsch, to me at least, needs to have both a rocky white foam cap and crystal clarity. Those two characteristics are often at odds, with clarity suffering in favor of head retention, or vice versa. Finding the right balance is the issue. I’m encouraged that the small amount of wheat hasn’t affected your clarity. Do you go with regular white wheat or do you use torrified or flaked?

 

[Broothru]

Have you thought of investing in a side pull Lukr?

That would sure do the trick, and even give authenticity to the Pivo I’ve got planned for this season. Hard to get it into a bottle for comps with a Lukr though.

 

[Yesfan]

That would sure do the trick, and even give authenticity to the Pivo I’ve got planned for this season. Hard to get it into a bottle for comps with a Lukr though.

Plus, they are expensive. I think I saw an episode of Apartment Brewer where his were around $300.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I thought you guys might find this interesting. These are pictures of a domestic premium lager that I kegged on Friday, a style not well know for its long lasting head. This beer is the product of four years of intensive development and is among the finest, most carefully refined recipes that I brew. The grain bill is ~40% pils malt, 30% 6-row, 20% corn meal, 10% instant rice. The lager is twelve days old and was kegged a bit less than two days ago. I kegged it on Friday, pressurized the keg to 20 psi, then let it sit for two days.

It's close to fully carbed, but needs another day. It's currently pouring at ~8psi--I run very low pressure on my rig. I set my watch next to the properly beer clean glass and took pictures until the foam subsided. Obviously, the 30% six-row is helping, but I'll argue that it isn't helping as much as we're lead to believe--I think modern 6-row is much, much, much closer to 2-row than the hairy chested stuff that we used to get even twenty years ago. I love 6-row but I'm starting to use it less and less because it's expensive and becoming increasingly indistinguishable from modern 2-row.

This is one of my most carefully refined recipes in a properly beer clean glass. Personally, I think beer foam is more process driven than ingredient driven.

There are no silver bullets in homebrewing.

Edit: I'm currently furiously scrubbing the walls behind my stove. I had no idea all that stuff was there, but the camera made it visible. Yuck!!!!

 

[corncob]

I thought you guys might find this interesting. These are pictures of a domestic premium lager that I kegged on Friday, a style not well know for its long lasting head. This beer is the product of four years of intensive development and is among the finest, most carefully refined recipes that I brew. The grain bill is ~40% pils malt, 30% 6-row, 20% corn meal, 10% instant rice. The lager is twelve days old and was kegged a bit less than two days ago. I kegged it on Friday, pressurized the keg to 20 psi, then let it sit for two days.

It's close to fully carbed, but needs another day. It's currently pouring at ~8psi--I run very low pressure on my rig. I set my watch next to the properly beer clean glass and took pictures until the foam subsided. Obviously, the 30% six-row is helping, but I'll argue that it isn't helping as much as we're lead to believe--I think modern 6-row is much, much, much closer to 2-row than the hairy chested stuff that we used to get even twenty years ago. I love 6-row but I'm starting to use it less and less because it's expensive and becoming increasingly indistinguishable from modern 2-row.

This is one of my most carefully refined recipes in a properly beer clean glass. Personally, I think beer foam is more process driven than ingredient driven.

There are no silver bullets in homebrewing.

View attachment 871622View attachment 871623View attachment 871625View attachment 871626

Edit: I'm currently furiously scrubbing the walls behind my stove. I had no idea all that stuff was there, but the camera made it visible. Yuck!!!!

Would you be willing to run us through the bullet points of what about your process you believe produces this result? Because you make a compelling case...

 

[JohnDBrewer]

Do you go with regular white wheat or do you use torrified or flaked?

White wheat. The beer drops crystal clear after a few weeks.

 

[Slim M]

I thought you guys might find this interesting. These are pictures of a domestic premium lager that I kegged on Friday, a style not well know for its long lasting head. This beer is the product of four years of intensive development and is among the finest, most carefully refined recipes that I brew. The grain bill is ~40% pils malt, 30% 6-row, 20% corn meal, 10% instant rice. The lager is twelve days old and was kegged a bit less than two days ago. I kegged it on Friday, pressurized the keg to 20 psi, then let it sit for two days.

It's close to fully carbed, but needs another day. It's currently pouring at ~8psi--I run very low pressure on my rig. I set my watch next to the properly beer clean glass and took pictures until the foam subsided. Obviously, the 30% six-row is helping, but I'll argue that it isn't helping as much as we're lead to believe--I think modern 6-row is much, much, much closer to 2-row than the hairy chested stuff that we used to get even twenty years ago. I love 6-row but I'm starting to use it less and less because it's expensive and becoming increasingly indistinguishable from modern 2-row.

This is one of my most carefully refined recipes in a properly beer clean glass. Personally, I think beer foam is more process driven than ingredient driven.

There are no silver bullets in homebrewing.

View attachment 871622View attachment 871623View attachment 871625View attachment 871626

Edit: I'm currently furiously scrubbing the walls behind my stove. I had no idea all that stuff was there, but the camera made it visible. Yuck!!!!

Don’t feel bad I looked up at my stove top vent hood the other day and almost died .

Besides that I brewed a Light American Lager with 34/70 last summer that surprisingly only had Briess brewers malt at 75% and store brand instant rice at 25%. This was a Biab beer with single infusion and no mash out or anything just a bag squeeze and drain and this thing had a head that wouldn’t quit. Don’t know why but it did.

 

[ClaudiusB]

I brew mostly Altbiers than Kölsch.
The Kölsch pictured was brewed with 95% Pilsner, and 5% Munich I from Weyerman.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Would you be willing to run us through the bullet points of what about your process you believe produces this result? Because you make a compelling case...

In all frankness, ClaudiusB is the dude that should be writing up that list. He's far better than me.

Here are a few things that I'm confident about

1) I think the importance of properly clean glasses is often overlooked. I don't use soap or a dishwasher. Instead, I thoroughly rinse my glasses before and after use and I store them in a lidded 3-gal bucket that is treated with the stuff in the photo below. I swap out the solution twice monthly. If your glasses are well rinsed prior to going into the solution, the solution should stay nice and clear.

2) Ales take longer to carbonate than lagers. The higher fermentation and finishing temperatures associated with ales means that they cannot carry as much residual carbonation at packaging time. I can't make any remarks about pressure fermentation because I have no (intentional) experience with that technique.

3) As an apartment brewer, I brew in my kitchen so I'm careful to keep the cleaning utensils for my brewery stored in their own box. I don't want to introduce fatty cross contamination from last night's dinner onto the surfaces of my kettle, MLT, HLT, or chilling rig.

 

[MaxStout]

In all frankness, ClaudiusB is the dude that should be writing up that list. He's far better than me.

Here are a few things that I'm confident about

1) I think the importance of properly clean glasses is often overlooked. I don't use soap or a dishwasher. Instead, I thoroughly rinse my glasses before and after use and I store them in a lidded 3-gal bucket that is treated with the stuff in the photo below. I swap out the solution twice monthly. If your glasses are well rinsed prior to going into the solution, the solution should stay nice and clear.
View attachment 871762

2) Ales take longer to carbonate than lagers. The higher fermentation and finishing temperatures associated with ales means that they cannot carry as much residual carbonation at packaging time. I can't make any remarks about pressure fermentation because I have no (intentional) experience with that technique.

3) As an apartment brewer, I brew in my kitchen so I'm careful to keep the cleaning utensils for my brewery stored in their own box. I don't want to introduce fatty cross contamination from last night's dinner onto the surfaces of my kettle, MLT, HLT, or chilling rig.

Where are you finding the G&G stuff? It's sold out everywhere I've looked.

Alternatively, is there a similar product? Maybe something from a restaurant or bar supply company?

 

[Bramling Cross]

Where are you finding the G&G stuff? It's sold out everywhere I've looked.

Alternatively, is there a similar product? Maybe something from a restaurant or bar supply company?

Oh, dear.

That's bad news, my tub of sachets are running low. I originally grabbed it off Amazon, but that was three years ago. That sucks that it's not easily available anymore.

 

[bwible]

Yes I have. But I doubt it's the dark roasted malts driving that head. More likely the unmalted barley they use.

Couldn’t be the little widget full of nitro either

 

[bwible]

That bad foam is from a 100% Carapils grist, and I think it’s hard to extrapolate from that to normal usage.

Breiss recommends 1-5%. I usually go right in the middle and use about 3%.

 

[Miraculix]

Breiss recommends 1-5%. I usually go right in the middle and use about 3%.

View attachment 871811

Everybody who had a look at this malt will know that it does not have the "full glassiness" of crystal malt. That's just plainly wrong what they are writing. About half of the stuff inside is still starch.

 

[ClaudiusB]

Everybody who had a look at this malt will know that it does not have the "full glassiness" of crystal malt. That's just plainly wrong what they are writing. About half of the stuff inside is still starch.

They do claim it's 100% glassy.
All their other caramel malts are 95% glassy.

 

[Tony B]

After reading a bit of this thread after it got going, I tried 3.6% or 8oz chit malt in a recent APA and got a mostly headless beer. Fortunately it’s still delicious. Does it take more? I got decent foam from the same amount of Carapils in past batches.

 

[day_trippr]

Recommendations I'm seeing are 5 to 15%. A beta glucan rest (120-130°F, 49-54°C) is recommended at those levels to prevent haze and viscosity issues...

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

I've used it at around 5% in my last few brews. I don't do a beta glucan rest and I haven't had haze or viscosity issues. OTOH, I'm not sure it's really done all that much for the foam.

 

[Halfakneecap]

After reading a bit of this thread after it got going, I tried 3.6% or 8oz chit malt in a recent APA and got a mostly headless beer. Fortunately it’s still delicious. Does it take more? I got decent foam from the same amount of Carapils in past batches.

I use it at 3% for my rice lagers with a definate increase in foam and head retention. Try again before ditching i think.

I don't do any special protein rest or anything.

 

[Tony B]

I appreciate all the responses. I am into quick brewing. Single infusion. I prefer finding the simplest method to achieve my goal. I just kegged a Pacific Pilsner with the same amount (8oz) of chit that I added specifically for head. When this one is chilled and gelatin fined, I’ll know if I’m going to use it again.

 

[Barão]

I appreciate all the responses. I am into quick brewing. Single infusion. I prefer finding the simplest method to achieve my goal. I just kegged a Pacific Pilsner with the same amount (8oz) of chit that I added specifically for head. When this one is chilled and gelatin fined, I’ll know if I’m going to use it again.

Gelatin eliminates foam retention

 

[InspectorJon]

Gelatin eliminates foam retention

Is that opinion or is there some authoritative source supporting this? This is the first time heard that.

 

[Miraculix]

I appreciate all the responses. I am into quick brewing. Single infusion. I prefer finding the simplest method to achieve my goal. I just kegged a Pacific Pilsner with the same amount (8oz) of chit that I added specifically for head. When this one is chilled and gelatin fined, I’ll know if I’m going to use it again.

If you only do one step, you must do it at the upper end of the temp range. That's the key to develop decent foam, at least in my experience. 68c and above.

 

[MaxStout]

Is that opinion or is there some authoritative source supporting this? This is the first time heard that.

You won't get an answer. That guy trolls threads all over this board.