Broken head?

[nonamekevin]

Made a dunkelweizen from kit a couple of weeks ago. When pouring from the kegerator, the head finishes or looks "broken" like how I've seen during some baking tasks before. It looks like if I took a fork, I could scoop out the broken bits, but it's just foam...

Any thoughts?

 

[bracconiere]

well you could try skimming the hot break durring the boil if it bugs you?

 

[pinemarten]

It doesn’t look awful. If you take a spoonful off the top, does it taste odd of feel oily?

It could be a bunch of different things. The easy ones are under carbonation and glassware that isn’t very thoroughly rinsed. If not those, I would next guess low protein in the beer. The beer looks fairly dark so that might not be an issue. Dark grains like crystals and chocolates generally have plenty of protein. If it’s not the grain bill, I wonder if your mash temp is too low. If this was mashed low, next time I’d try 155-160.

 

[VikeMan]

If not those, I would next guess low protein in the beer. The beer looks fairly dark so that might not be an issue. Dark grains like crystals and chocolates generally have plenty of protein.

Crystal Malts and Chocolate Malts dont have more proteins than other malts. They do enhance foam, but the reason is that they have more melanoidins, which act to block lipids (which otherwise are foam negative).

ETA: Here's a presentation I did for my homebrew club a while back.
http://sonsofalchemy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Foam.pdf

 

[nonamekevin]

It doesn’t look awful. If you take a spoonful off the top, does it taste odd of feel oily?

It could be a bunch of different things. The easy ones are under carbonation and glassware that isn’t very thoroughly rinsed. If not those, I would next guess low protein in the beer. The beer looks fairly dark so that might not be an issue. Dark grains like crystals and chocolates generally have plenty of protein. If it’s not the grain bill, I wonder if your mash temp is too low. If this was mashed low, next time I’d try 155-160.

Under carb'd is possible, I had it at 10psi for about 2 weeks during cold conditioning, then transferred it to my serving keg at 15psi. Probably needs a bit more time...

As far as mash, I did a partial mash with the specialty malts from the kit (8oz caramunich, 4oz pale chocolate, 4oz carafa special) between 150-168F for 30min before adding the Bavarian DME.

 

[VikeMan]

As far as mash, I did a partial mash with the specialty malts from the kit (8oz caramunich, 4oz pale chocolate, 4oz carafa special) between 150-168F for 30min before adding the Bavarian DME.

Just FYI, that's not a mash, because there's no base malt (like pale malt, pilsner, etc.) providing enzymes. What you did was a simple steep, which is fine, because those particular three malts don't require mashing.

 

[GoodTruble]

Was it transferred to the keg while still fermenting?

 

[nonamekevin]

Just FYI, that's not a mash, because there's no base malt (like pale malt, pilsner, etc.) providing enzymes. What you did was a simple steep, which is fine, because those particular three malts don't require mashing.

Thank you sir, still learning the terminology.

Was it transferred to the keg while still fermenting?

I highly doubt it, but maybe? I let it ferment for three days at 64F, bumped it up to 72F for four days or so, took a gravity reading and I was right there at the high end of my FG. Spent the next 13 or so days going from 72F to 45F for cold conditioning before transferring to my serving keg.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Made a dunkelweizen from kit a couple of weeks ago. When pouring from the kegerator, the head finishes or looks "broken" like how I've seen during some baking tasks before. It looks like if I took a fork, I could scoop out the broken bits, but it's just foam...

Any thoughts?

how does it taste, the beer?

 

[GoodTruble]

Do all pints have that residue, or just the first few? And is it consistent or decreasing with each pint? (My theory is that it wasn't done fermenting and generated more trube (fermentation junk) in the keg that then settled in the bottom during cold crashing. So now that stuff is getting sucked off the bottom of the keg - but should decrease as more pints are poured).