Dear Dr. Ruth; I'm having a bit of a problem with head rentention

[Prost!]

Dear Dr. Ruth;

I'm having a bit of a problem with head rentention.


I'm considering trying Acacia. Anyone have experience with this additive?
http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15511

 

[Kaiser]

Oh my goodness,

I though that beer is one of the few foods that is supposed to have a short ingredient list (malt, water, hops, yeast) and now the even offer weird detergent like chemical for head retention. What's next, food coloring because the color of your beer is off or pure alcohol because you missed your SG.

Kai

 

[Ivan Lendl]

just go to 22 acacia avenue and see charlotte the harlot...

 

[SwAMi75]

Have you tried a handfull of wheat in your mash?

 

[God Emporer BillyBrew]

just go to 22 acacia avenue and see charlotte the harlot...

Nice Maiden reference!

 

[m_f]

arabic gum?
When kid, I used to disolve a couple of tea spoons in some cold water and use it to glue stamps in my collection album... hahahaha
it was a good homemade glue that holded nicely but could be disolved with water (and the stamps recovered)... I'd use this thing to afix labels to the bottles ;^)

 

[Desert_Sky]

Have you tried a handfull of wheat in your mash?

Yea flaked wheat would help wouldn't it?

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Try to acquire the latest issue of BYO which has an excellent article on head formation and retention. They generally reject the use of adjuncts as addressing the symptom of poor head retention and focus on the root causes in the brewing process that cause poor head retention.

This appeals to me as there are many, many all barley/non-adjunct brews with excellent head.

 

[Kaiser]

Try to acquire the latest issue of BYO which has an excellent article on head formation and retention. They generally reject the use of adjuncts as addressing the symptom of poor head retention and focus on the root causes in the brewing process that cause poor head retention.

One of the things to avoid was excessive foaming during any part of the brewing process. There 2 stages where this is commonly done by brewers, aeration via shaking and carbonation via shaking. I don't use this aeration method and was contemplating the carbonation with shaking method. I abandoned the latter after I read an article on BYO's web page.

The whole thing about putting weird stuff in your beer to make it look better should also be discussed in the light of competitive brewing. To me it's like the use of steroids in sports and should be outlawed. But then again, where do you draw the line. Is the use of adjuncts for head retention cheating or not?

Kai

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I'm more of a free-market kind of guy. Put whatever you want in your beer as long as it's clearly marked as such and let the consumer make the choice. Is using cultured yeast cheating? People used to rely on spontaneous fermentation, but we (mostly) have moved away from that and have better beer for it.

Having said that, my personal interest is in more traditional methods, but I don't mind the occasional experiment (chocolate chip blueberry honey hefeweizen anyone?).

 

[Kevin K]

Kai, if shaking your primary to aerate is a cause of poor head retention, how would you aerate if you were me (basic equipment, limited budget)?

 

[Ivan Lendl]

To me it's like the use of steroids in sports and should be outlawed. But then again, where do you draw the line. Is the use of adjuncts for head retention cheating or not?

Kai

i think you should penalize players for NOT using steroids, i dont care about their health, i want super humans willing to die for thier sport. And if kids are dumb enough to idolize some testosterone filled freak of nature thats thier problem...

Where DO you draw the line? i feel steroids is just like any other technology, take synthetic tennis rackets vs. wooden ones, many feel that this has changed the game for the worse, taking away the art form of slicing and dicing your opponents to death(ala Johnny Mac)

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Kai, if shaking your primary to aerate is a cause of poor head retention, how would you aerate if you were me (basic equipment, limited budget)?

Are you brewing extract/concentrated boil? If so, when you top up you are most likely adding oxygenated water which is probably introducing adequate oxygenation (assuming you haven't boiled it previously...in which case you could shake it good before adding it). I use the 'water gun sprayer thingie' on the sink when I occasionally need to top up my AG batches and that really adds some oxygenation.

 

[Kevin K]

I am indeed brewing extract/concentrated boil.

Thanks Baron.

What about bottled water? Would a simple vigorous shake before pouring be sufficient?

 

[Kaiser]

Kai, if shaking your primary to aerate is a cause of poor head retention, how would you aerate if you were me (basic equipment, limited budget)?

Onestly, I'm not sure how big on an impact shaking vs. no-shaking makes on the head retention. I just read it at BYO.com and it made sense to me. Since I already use SS stone and oxygen to areate I didn't worry about it at all.

Now your problem. Like the Baron said, you can top off a concentrated boil with 1 to 2 Gal of bottled water. This water should have enough oxygen in it if you don't boil it. Some even say on the bottle that they are oxygen enriched. If you do full boils, don't worry to much about your shaky-shaky aeration. Good aeration is much more important than good head (retention that is ). But start looking around what other aeration method people are using that suit your budget.

Kai

 

[Pumbaa]

Prime with wheat DME and it will help. Personally i dont really care too much abouthead retention so if I pour a beer, it has a nice head on it and the head is gone by the time I finish and it tastes good I'm happy

 

[casebrew]

I am indeed brewing extract/concentrated boil.

Thanks Baron.

quote]

That's your problem. Extract is purifyed to the point that the unfermentables are removed. It is those unfermentables that add the body and head retention to the brew. For maximum head retention, do a poor job of temperature controlling in your mash. People tell me my brew isn't beer, it's DINNER!

Brew like the big boys, All Grian. Or live with the deficiencies/advantages of your chosen path.

 

[Prost!]

Try to acquire the latest issue of BYO which has an excellent article on head formation and retention. They generally reject the use of adjuncts as addressing the symptom of poor head retention and focus on the root causes in the brewing process that cause poor head retention.

This appeals to me as there are many, many all barley/non-adjunct brews with excellent head.

Thanks. I'll check out BYO.

 

[Kevin K]

That's your problem.

Didn't know I had a problem - in fact, I haven't started my first batch yet.

Extract is purifyed to the point that the unfermentables are removed. It is those unfermentables that add the body and head retention to the brew. For maximum head retention, do a poor job of temperature controlling in your mash. People tell me my brew isn't beer, it's DINNER!

Brew like the big boys, All Grian. Or live with the deficiencies/advantages of your chosen path.

Gotta start somewhere right?

 

[Kaiser]

I have to disagree with this. To my knowledge malt extract is concentrated wort. Preferably it has been concentrated in a vacuum to minimize long exposure to high heat. But it should still contain all the extract from the grains (fermentable and unfermentable). The only problem is that your malt extract producer chose the mashing schedule for you and you can't change this. You can only use different manufacturers of ME to get different characteristics.

Ales generally are not brewed for good head retention anyway. Have you seen how long the head on a SNPA lasts?. If Ales (or American/British beers in general) where supposed to be served with head, the pint glasses were actually bigger than pints since you would need to fit a head on top of a pint of beer.

Kai

 

[Prost!]

One of the things to avoid was excessive foaming during any part of the brewing process. There 2 stages where this is commonly done by brewers, aeration via shaking and carbonation via shaking. I don't use this aeration method and was contemplating the carbonation with shaking method. I abandoned the latter after I read an article on BYO's web page.

The whole thing about putting weird stuff in your beer to make it look better should also be discussed in the light of competitive brewing. To me it's like the use of steroids in sports and should be outlawed. But then again, where do you draw the line. Is the use of adjuncts for head retention cheating or not?

Kai

I read a book (can't recall which) advising to shake the fermentor for three minutes after pitching yeast. That's what I do and it does create a large amount of foam, I always thought it was a good thing. Perhaps that's the problem. I don't have an aeration pump/stone so I'm going to try John Palmer's method: In a partial boil, add the water to the fermentor and shake it for several minutes before adding the wort to it. Makes sense.

 

[Kevin K]

Ah! Good plan!

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I'll just interject here, while it is far, far, far from an essential piece of equipment, I'm extremely pleased with my oxygenation stone and the ferments I get. Probably a more valuable luxury for people doing full-wort boils.