Research reference for beer foam

[william_shakes_beer]

I have had variances in my head retention and volume, including copious amounts of foam not related to carbonation over pressure. I'd like to find a technical reference that can help me understand how the proteins in the wort are affected by grain bill, boil, hops, and carbonation and how they relate volume and retention of head, so I can start troubleshooting in a more educated manner. Can anyone point me to a technical reference on this subject?

 

[suregork]

Here is Bamforth's book on the subject:
http://www.mbaa.com/store/Pages/19002.aspx

Some open access papers from JIB:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1985.tb04359.x/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2004.tb00620.x/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1999.tb00016.x/abstract

Another open access review (more focused on wine):
http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/IM/article/view/54426

 

[ajdelange]

Charlie is Dr. Foam!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Read the open source papers. Was looking for something less technical, like "the following malts tend to produce more foam" guess it isn't that simple!!!

Here's my issue: I did a Guiness stout clone. After 2 months in the bottle the first 12 I opened did not gush at opening, but produced excessive foam when poured, (24 OZ) which means that the co2 was driven into solution. That's when I posted the OP. However, the last 4 I opened produced sufficient foam to fill a 16 OZ glass, which is excessive but acceptable IMHO. If some foamed and some didn't, I'd conclude the first bottles opened were from the bottom of the bucket with excess priming sugar that wasn't mixed completely. However, if that were the case I'd expect the foaming to be random hit and miss, not magically stop after a certain point in time.

Is it possible that the beer has reached some sort of equilibrium, that the first bottles were in fact opened too soon?