How to get head without ruining my relationship?

[BmillaTheBrewzilla]

Mash in thick initially with your pale malt only at your 50C rest. When it comes time to ramp up to the higher temperature, use boiling water to get your next rest temperature, then add your specialty/other grains as a 'brake' on the temperature rise. You don't really want to use cold water to brake the rise, as that risks too soupy a mash. I typically do a 50/60/70C mash program, with intervals of 10/30/30 minutes.


Reference

Wow- I will definitely try this with my next brew. I've been curious if doing a rest at a lower temp would make a difference with head retention, as I've seen people around here have opinions on both sides of the protein rest debate.

Also, echoing the sentiments of others- the wealth of knowledge around here blows me away. You all rule.

 

[Bob]

There are a few caveats.

Protein rests are most useful when using a relatively undermodified pale malt (like certain European Pils malts) or a pale malt relatively high in protein (like domestic 6-row) along with a relatively high proportion of adjuncts (like maize).

If you're using a very highly modified pale ale malt like Maris Otter or even domestic 2-row, you really shouldn't need to modify your mash schedule to promote protein modification. Those malts are designed for single-infusion mashes and really ought to require no mash techniques.

Note that when I write short I mean short. Much more than ten minutes and you run the risk of going out the other side and ending up with no foam at all and a beer with poor body. The exact time needed will be dependent on the pale malt used. In a commercial brewery one usually uses one base malt type in pretty much every beer - and you're tasting the beer at all stages of the process every day - so it's easy to build a baseline. Amateurs seemingly tend to use a different base malt for every recipe. If you're in that boat, TAKE CAREFUL NOTES at every stage of the process, from brew-day to tasting notes from 'first bottle popped' to 'last bottle found hiding behind the yogurt'. Only thus can you figure out, "Okay, Weyermann Pils needs a 12 minute rest, Briess Brewer's Malt needs ten minutes, and Crisp Maris Otter doesn't need a rest at all."

In sum, a rest at 50C can have three beneficial effects on the finished beer through jiggling protein molecules. In the first place it can promote foam-positive proteins. In the second it can reduce haze-positive proteins. In the third, it can liberate more starches from the protein matrix for the amylases to attack during the saccharification rest. But a 50C rest can be detrimental to low-protein, high-modification malts like Maris Otter by excessively degrading what few proteins exist in the malt.

Experimentation will show the answer for you.

Cheers!

Bob