Head retention and altitude

[sancycling]

So Im at the beach and have been tasting some craft beers and brought a couple of home brews. I usually live at 8,500 ft.
Ive noticed that the head is significantly reduced or even gone completely.
The craft beers have almost no foam. The only one that was somewhat ok was a Sam Adams black lager.
My home brews were a bit affected too... My IPA is usually a bit overcarbonated but here the head was perfect. And an Irish Red that has less foam than usual.
What is weird is that most of the craft beers come from sea level areas.
What else can be happening?
I doubt that detergent from washing the glasses is responsible.

Any ideas?



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[microbusbrewery]

The pressure on the head is going to be higher at sea level compared to 8500 feet, so it makes sense that less CO2 would break out of solution. This is the same reason why water boils at lower temps at altitude compared to sea level. I've never noticed a drastic effect though so I'd suspect it could be a combination of factors. I'm heading down to SoCal soon, so I'll try to pay more attention.

 

[sancycling]

So this is what I mean.
It is not completely flat as it does have the tiny bubbles going up. It does taste a bit flat though.


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[idylldon]

Two things: under carbonated and the glass isn't "beer clean."

http://www.micromatic.com/Templates/static/images/1851/Beer_Clean_3_pg.pdf

Correct these and see if the problem persists.

Cheers,
--
Don

 

[microbusbrewery]

So there's no head and they're flat? I thought you meant there was no head but still carb'd. Not sure what's going on but I suspect it might be a combination of a couple things. I think detergent may be playing a part. Did these beers come from 8500 feet or were the purchased locally? Any in cans, or were they all bottled?