I have a question related to the head of a beer. The last few beers I've brewed have had a nice thick head that actually persisted almost all the way to the bottom of the glass. But the foam I've been getting from my beers isn't the nice fluffy and and sticky kind you see on good microbrew beers. If I tilt my glass back and forth, the foam just slides back and forth with the beer and doesn't leave a nice lace on the side of the glass which is a sign of a trully creamy head. What's the trick to get that creamy head?
How to get sticky lace
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For one, LOTS o' hops! The polyphenols in the hops bind the proteins in the beer to enhance the lace.
I brew all-grain and I bottle condition my beers.
Okay. When I switched to all grain and to kegging, I noticed an improvement in head formation and creaminess each time.
If you are all grain, try adding some wheat, .5 to 1lb in your grain bill. That will help with your head retention and I know that Belgian Beers out there do have some wheat in them.
Also, a reason why you may see a difference with microbrew compared to yours is most of them usually force carbonate and then pressure fill the bottles. I noticed my beers were getting a much nice head when I started to keg.
Just my $.02. Not sure if its right, but thats what I have experienced with my brews
Would 0.5lbs to 1lbs of wheat malt alter the flavors very much? I'll post the grain bill of the last beer (which was a chocolate stout) I brewed that had great-head-but-no-lace problem.
8.0 lbs Pale Ale Malt
2.0 lbs Biscuit Malt
0.5 lbs Black Patent Malt
0.5 lbs Roasted Barley
Would adding the wheat corrupt this beer?
8.0 lbs Pale Ale Malt
2.0 lbs Biscuit Malt
0.5 lbs Black Patent Malt
0.5 lbs Roasted Barley
Would adding the wheat corrupt this beer?
I dont have too much experience with adding wheat to beers in those small quantities, but I have seen lots of recipes that call for .5 lbs of wheat for pale ales or other lighter beers. I would assume it would be okay to add w/o any noticeable difference.
With your grain bill, I doubt that you would even notice any difference. All of your specialty malts contribute a lot to the beer and a base malt like wheat doesnt add all that much
no i did up a pa with about that same recipe but with 9.5 of pale and 1.5 biscut and 1 roasted and .5 flaked wheat and is very plesent hoped with brewers gold, i love that **** its gold!:rockin:
bdnoona
Well-Known Member
+1 to this. Putting 0.5# of flaked wheat in your grist gives it an awesome head, and leaves sick lacing all the way down the glass. It's so small too, it doesn't alter the taste much.
You don't have any crystal malts in that recipe which also aids in head retention.
Flaked barley would be a good addition to any stout IMO for some creaminess and head retention.
Also, fermentation temps can affect your head retention. If you're fermenting too warm this could be part of the problem.
Flaked barley would be a good addition to any stout IMO for some creaminess and head retention.
Also, fermentation temps can affect your head retention. If you're fermenting too warm this could be part of the problem.
As has been noted, proteins are the key. But adding proteins will do you no good if you have fermentation issues. For example, look at Duvel....probably the best beer foam out there and nothing but pils malt and sugar.....no wheat, no flaked barley....take gander at this excellent article.....
http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/35-head-retention/697-getting-good-beer-foam-techniques
http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/35-head-retention/697-getting-good-beer-foam-techniques
I never thought about fermentation temperature affecting the consistency of head. That particular beer I posted fermented rather warm (I don't remember exactly, but it was definitely above 75) due to lack of available temperature control. But last month I got a plastic 15gal tub at Target and started using iced water bottles to keep fermentation within a better range. I've got an esb sitting in it around 65 degrees so that should help the next time I brew a stout.
I really liked that recipe I posted above and I think I will tweak it a bit with maybe an addition of some wheat or some flaked barley. It completely escaped me that this beer had no crystal malt at all as well which is a common component of paler beers. Thanks for all the advice. I'm so happy I've got some stuff to try out now. I was planning to brew an english IPA in october, but I'm seriously tempted to try the modified stout again.
I really liked that recipe I posted above and I think I will tweak it a bit with maybe an addition of some wheat or some flaked barley. It completely escaped me that this beer had no crystal malt at all as well which is a common component of paler beers. Thanks for all the advice. I'm so happy I've got some stuff to try out now. I was planning to brew an english IPA in october, but I'm seriously tempted to try the modified stout again.
FishinDave07
Well-Known Member
make sure you rinse your glass well.
northernlad
Well-Known Member
And, if you use a dishwasher, keep the detergent as low as you can and still get clean dishes and NEVER use the heat dry. It bakes on the residual detergent and shortens the life of the glass from the thermal shock.
+1 to this. I know a lot of rinse agents (if you use them in your dishwasher) as well as some dish detergents leave behind residues that affect both/either head retention and 'belgian lacing.'
I recently read up on a new product out there called KreamyX. It's a substitute for your priming sugar/DME at bottling time, and the profile of it alleges to give you a very creamy, lacy head. From what I hear from people here on the forums is that it works quite well. I've never tried it personally, but I plan to in the very near future.
flyangler18
Well-Known Member
Make sure those glasses are beer clean - and here's a vid from PseudoChef showing just how to do so:
[youtube]27ESd5lopUo[/youtube]
[youtube]27ESd5lopUo[/youtube]
My beer glasses never touch the dishwasher, I simple rinse them with water when I'm done and lightly wash them with soap followed by a heavy rinse maybe after 10 uses or so. May sound gross but I get great head on my beer!!
springer
Well-Known Member
yes it coats the glass so it dries without spots ..
I laughed when PseudoChef swiped the cat off the counter.And then the cat was back towards the end looking ready to pounce on him..
Last time I was around sticky lace... I had to do the laundry!
I have a little problem with this often cited article. Don't get me wrong it is a good article, and has lots of good facts about what makes for good foam, how to diagnose problems, etc. What I find it lacking is that it totally ignores the role of the mash schedule in creating foam positive proteins. It highlights Duvel as a "low protein" beer with great head but then doesn't run with the example and suggest at all how Duvel gets such great foam with it's simple grain bill. The article goes so far as to put low protein in quotations, to imply something is different, but doesn't clearly follow through with what the difference is. A lost teaching moment! Yes the grain bill is low in protein, but as the article mentions at the beginning, it is not simply how much protein, but WHAT proteins that make a difference. I recall (hopefully correctly) that Duvel is mashed in at under 100F and then slowly raised up to its final saccharification temperature. I guess that would be a "step" mash. I've been doing step mashes on all my lagers, and I've started to do it for many of my ales too, and I get real nice creamy heads with tons of lacing.
So I tried the salt thing on my glass yesterday with the stout I was speaking of earlier. Although it's no Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale lace, it did improve the lacing a bit.
As for the role of mashing in head retention, I've been told many times to not worry about the protein rest. It use to be necessary 100 years ago since malt was quite under modified. But I've read that with today's heavily modified malts, a protein rest may actually hurt your beer by chopping up proteins in too small a chunks. Anyhow, I'm not equipped to handle multi step infusion mashing at this point. That requires mashing in a kettle with a constant application heat source to maintain the needed temperatures over the course of several hours at the needed stages. It also requires a second burner to start heating up sparge water while the saccharification stage is wrapping up. I just don't have access to that kind of funds at this stage for a second kettle, a second burner a whole bunch of extra gas. So I will tweak the recipes to include some flaked barley, wheat or some crystal malt wherever I can and stick with single step infusion mashing in my water cooler.
As for the role of mashing in head retention, I've been told many times to not worry about the protein rest. It use to be necessary 100 years ago since malt was quite under modified. But I've read that with today's heavily modified malts, a protein rest may actually hurt your beer by chopping up proteins in too small a chunks. Anyhow, I'm not equipped to handle multi step infusion mashing at this point. That requires mashing in a kettle with a constant application heat source to maintain the needed temperatures over the course of several hours at the needed stages. It also requires a second burner to start heating up sparge water while the saccharification stage is wrapping up. I just don't have access to that kind of funds at this stage for a second kettle, a second burner a whole bunch of extra gas. So I will tweak the recipes to include some flaked barley, wheat or some crystal malt wherever I can and stick with single step infusion mashing in my water cooler.
I hear the same thing, but just because the modern malts are well modified so you don't have to do a protein rest, that doesn't mean there still aren't benefits to doing one. I have found a short protein rest (20 min.) improves both body and head retention. I can make great beer without the protein rest, but I find my beers are even better when I do one
FishinDave07
Well-Known Member
That's exactly what i do and have great head retention as well!
