First, sorry for re-kindling an almost year and a half old thread.
I have brewed 5 batches now, in this order Irish Red(MS kit), Honey Ale(MS it), Chimay Blue clone(from these forums), Lemon Coriander Weiss(based off MS kit), BBD Saison Furtiff - just bottled - (ChshreCat's recipe) and with the exception of maybe 5 bottles I've had very poor luck with head retention. First two batches I added all extract at beginning of boil, I have since learned there's no reason for that nonsense
. The next 3 I have either added around a pound of DME at the beginning of the boil or none of the extract until 10 -15 min were left.
The third batch was a dubbel and after a week of carbing in a 70 -75 degree room and 1.5 - 2 days in the fridge it had great head, remainded until the glass was empty. I opened another a couple days ago, about 3 weeks in 70 -75 degree room and a week in the fridge, no head but lots of carbonation. The carbonation was noticeable through the whole glass, not like soda where it dissipates after a few minutes. The rest of this batch is currently "resting" in a 60 degree closet as it's still boozy, but without the huge head that you get with Belgians this batch isn't going to be a favorite of mine.
The fourth was a lemon coriander weiss, much like Midwests kit but I bought stuff from LHBS and used different hops than what their kit called for, grain bill was identical though. The first bottle of this as well had great head and tasted how I expected. I'm down to 13 bottles left and have only had one other bottle have good head when poured and retain it. The rest have had some head or almost no head when poured and some had left trace amounts of lacing and some have left none.
My general process is partial boils, usually 2.5 - 3.5 gallons, with research I've learned to add most of the extract anywhere from 15 min to flame out so that's what my last few batches have been. Then top of with refrigerated tap water. I do have pretty hard water in the area I live, it's city water so probably some level of chlorine, and I haven't pre-boiled to remove chlorine or minerals. Ambient temps stay in mid to upper 60's and I just allow the temps to free rise. I rinse all bottles with pretty hot water, then soak 12 -18 in Star-san as I'm bottling, remove from Star-san bucket, fill, cap, store in room that's 70 -75 degrees for at least 2 weeks, I just move to fridge as I drink them, and fridge for at least 2 days, again some get longer as I drink them.
At this point I'm thinking either I'm boiling to hot, but I recently read that rigorous boiling does something with maillard reactions that is wanted, or the city water I'm using has something in it that is causing the problem. I think for my next batch I'm going to buy spring or distilled water, does anybody have thoughts on which I should go with? Should I buy just what I'm topping off with, 3 or 4 gallons, or should I buy 6 or 7 gallons and use only that water?