My beer foam/head retention tips!

[Bizoune]

These are my top 4 tips that my last 15 batches have taught me on creating beer foam with good retention. Your mileage may vary.

1. Use late hop additions (10 minutes and under)
2. Don’t boil the snot out of your wort. Bubbles only have to break the surface.
3. If the recipe calls for it, use carapils and other crystal malts.
4. Rinse your glass with cool water and let drip dry before serving.

Anything else...?

 

[BillyBroas]

I'm not one of those "if you put fruit in your beer you should die" people, BUT if you add citrus it will reduce the head.

 

[chuggs]

The beer clean glass is important.

Using German Pilsner malt always helps...and adding the protein rest in your mashing schedule.

Adding flaked Oats...if you're not opposed to adjuncts.

 

[baer19d]

If using Crystal or Carapils malt in a recipe and the head and or retention is not so great would adding more of the above mentioned specialty malts possibly fix this problem? Thanks, Mike

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Shake the beer before pouring seems to help.

 

[wildwest450]

I boil the snot out my beer and have zero problems with head retention.
And besides flameout hops, I don't use late additions.

 

[BargainFittings]

I would say get your mash ph and temps right and provide a nice stable environment for your yeast and you should have great beer. It seems that as my beer improved the head retention and foam just followed.

Wayne.

 

[Revvy]

Hops and how you boil has little to do with headretention. The proteins from your choice of grains, like wheat and carapils, indeed do. As does whether you use soap to clean your glasses, but not the first two. If that were the case then IPAs wouldn't have head.

 

[menschmaschine]

and adding the protein rest in your mashing schedule.

With most malts of today, this can actually reduce foam/retention. The malts are modified to the extent that the proteins that would break down to smaller proteins that contribute to foam/retention... are already broken down. A protein rest can break them down further to be too small to contribute to foam.

A very short protein rest or a rest in the low 140s°F is about as far as one should typically go with most malts. And of course, English Pale Malt should never have a protein rest.