Head Retention

[commonsense]

Just wondering what everyone else uses percentage wise on agents to help head retention. Generally I use around 10% crystal malts (or other things like flaked barley etc). I have gone up to 18% on a British IPA that came out fantastic.

I guess my main reason for asking is I'm going to brew an Alt soon with CaraRed and I'm debating on 14% or 10%. I have no experience with this malt and I have read it may be too sweet for more than 10% usage.

Am I being to obsessive about a 4% difference? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[RonPopeil]

Cara malts are high in dextrines which will give you foam. Proteins are another source of foam so you can consider flaked wheat or oats in your beer. If you have both of these covered then it could be carbonation required to actually push the bubbles up.

 

[unionrdr]

Dextrins & proteins both contribute to head as I understand it. But is driven by the carbonation after pouring into a glass. The first two also seem to govern how thick & long lasting the head is. Which in turn is also governed by priming level & fridge time to get co2 well into solution.