Improving foam longevity with egg white

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

MehrdadMolavi

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2023
Messages
20
Reaction score
19
Location
Iran
Hi friends,

In order to increase the longevity and lacing of foam, I add 30 ml egg white to 1000 ml beer while bottle conditioning.
At the begining of bottling for second fermentaion , I dilute 30 ml egg white with 20 ml water then add the mixture by a measured syringe to my 1000 ml bottle of beer then shake it well and store in refrigerator.
I have uploaded the photos of my beer with and without added egg white after two weeks and compare them for 120 seconds duration, as you see, the longevity and lacing of foam with added egg white(photo#1) is much better than that of without added egg white(photo #2).
Also the moutfeel with added egg white beer is improved and there is no smelling of egg.

Good luck.
 

Attachments

  • Photo#1.jpg
    Photo#1.jpg
    2.1 MB · Views: 0
  • Photo#2.jpg
    Photo#2.jpg
    1.8 MB · Views: 0
OP is making themselves an alcoholic beverage in a place where our typical ingredients and supplies are difficult to obtain. Competition is unlikely.

Have y'all tried adding alcohol and carbonation to an available non-alcoholic malt beverage? Suggestions for improving mouthfeel and head retention in that circumstance?

@MehrdadMolavi, thanks for sharing your experience.
 
I read about this in Lars Marius Garshol's "Historical Brewing Techniques" book. Some farmhouse brewers add a whole raw egg (without shell of course) straight into the fermenter.

Thanks for sharing the result of your experiment!
 
Last edited:
This sounds like a good way to catch salmonella, if you ask me.
About 1 in 20000 eggs have salmonella according to CDC, and usually not in enough numbers to be of issue for a healthy person. You can pasteurize at home by heating shell eggs to 140*F and holding for a minimum of 3.5 minutes according to USDA. Whether the very slight risk or the trouble is worth improving head retention and lacing is up to the individual. I sure as heck wouldn't care that much!😉🍻
 
Last edited:
FFS, people.

Take the time to understand the quality and necessary precautions for cooking with eggs.

OP states OP is in Iran. Most of us are not.

American store-bought eggs are probably not the "farm house eggs" that Lars talks about.

Feel fee to "you do you" within with your home brew in your house. If you intend to send something to a competition, please make sure the risk of salmonella is zero. Not approaching zero. Zero.
 
OP is making themselves an alcoholic beverage in a place where our typical ingredients and supplies are difficult to obtain. Competition is unlikely.

Have y'all tried adding alcohol and carbonation to an available non-alcoholic malt beverage? Suggestions for improving mouthfeel and head retention in that circumstance?

@MehrdadMolavi, thanks for sharing your experience.
Yes, I make my alcohol beer by non-alcoholic beer since only non-alcoholic beer are legal in my country, regarding the head retention, besides egg white, I suggest Quillaja extract.
 
I suspect that eggs whites might enhance foam retention because of their proteins, the majority of which are ovalbumin, which happens to be a glycoprotein. Glycoproteins from malt are known to enhance foam. I think there are some egg white powders available as supplements.
 
I read about this in Lars Marius Garshol's "Historical Brewing Techniques" book. Some farmhouse brewers add a whole raw egg (without shell of course) straight into the fermenter.

Thanks for sharing the result of your experiment!
Yes it's an old method, but according to my experience, egg yolk prevents making foam so I use only egg white.
 
About 1 in 20000 eggs have salmonella according to CDC, and usually not in enough numbers to be of issue for a healthy person. You can pasteurize at home by heating shell eggs to 140*F and holding for a minimum of 3.5 minutes according to USDA. Whether the very slight risk or the trouble is worth improving head retention and lacing is up to the individual. I sure as heck wouldn't care that much!😉🍻
😉
 
FFS, people.

Take the time to understand the quality and necessary precautions for cooking with eggs.

OP states OP is in Iran. Most of us are not.

American store-bought eggs are probably not the "farm house eggs" that Lars talks about.

Feel fee to "you do you" within with your home brew in your house. If you intend to send something to a competition, please make sure the risk of salmonella is zero. Not approaching zero. Zero.
I use eggs provided in hypermarkets which are generally safe.
 
Yes it could be, but generally, the alocohol in your beer kills most bacteria, Salmonella,etc pathogenes while aging in the bottle for second fermentation.
Here is a link in this regard:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaa...safer-than-drinking-it-fresh/?sh=53e5fed52e16
you should consider the fact that the article said that you need something that has at least 20% alchool, so not most beers...
That said, i eat raw eggs and never had any problem. In movies americans always seem so afraid of things like that, apparently they are in real life too.
 
Those of us who were alive in the 80s and 90s saw some pretty major egg-related salmonella outbreaks. In the UK too, not just the US. It’s less of a problem now than it used to be.

And salmonella is no fun. Would I change my behavior to avoid a 1% chance of salmonella? You betcha.
 
Last edited:
I suspect that eggs whites might enhance foam retention because of their proteins, the majority of which are ovalbumin, which happens to be a glycoprotein. Glycoproteins from malt are known to enhance foam. I think there are some egg white powders available as supplements.
Yes, the foam is made by the proteins and it also causes haze and turbidity and you can fine-tune it by adding some gelatine to reduce the turbidity.
 
you should consider the fact that the article said that you need something that has at least 20% alchool, so not most beers...
That said, i eat raw eggs and never had any problem. In movies americans always seem so afraid of things like that, apparently they are in real life too.
Yes you are right, the more alcohol the faster disinfection in a period of time, so if the amount of alcohol is low then you have to keep it longer in contact with pathogene to be more effective.
 
Those of us who were alive in the 80s and 90s saw some pretty major egg-related salmonella outbreaks. In the UK too, not just the US. It’s less of a problem now than it used to be.

And salmonella is no fun. Would I change my behavior to avoid a 1% chance of salmonella? You betcha.
We could use pasteurized egg white to reduce the risk.
 
Back
Top