Head retention and protafloc

[Stikius]

Personally I don't really care if my beer is super clear or a bit hazy. But since I don't just drink all of my beer myself but also serve friends and family, I would like to serve at least my pilsners fairly clear. To me it seems however, that when using protafloc, I loose head retention. This also makes sense since protafloc removes the protein, and as far as I've understood the protein is what will give you good head retention.

Is there any way around this? A bit less protafloc than the package suggests? Stay away from protafloc and extend the lagering period? Any suggestions?

 

[tdf]

I use whirlfloc in all of my beers (pretty much the same thing as protafloc) and I can get both a nice brite beer + long lasting foam. The biggest improvement for me was adding a 15 minute mash step at 72c. A rest at this temperature forms a lot more glycoproteins, which are a big part of foam formation and retention[1].

[1] https://brewingforward.com/wiki/Glycoproteins

This beer also had a lot of hops, which is great for foam retention as well, but you can see it's nice and brite. I swirled and drank the foam before the last picture.

 

[Stikius]

Thanks, I'll give it a try this weekend! Looks really nice that beer