I've only been brewing 4-5 years, I always feel a little more proud of my tasty brews that have a long lasting thick head of fine bubbles that lace the glass. As someone above mentioned, in competition head and head retention counts.
I’m glad you like that but I don’t want a foam mustache for the first half of my beer!
I spent some time in the Netherlands back in the 90's. I was really impressed by the care with which they served every beer. For example, the beer was ALWAYS in a matching logo'd glass, with a matching coaster. If you changed the beer, they would change the coaster and glass to match.
But the truly unique thing was their care of the beer head. The beer level was always at the middle of the glass's logo, and the foam was always scraped to leave the foam flat at the rim.
The purpose of the foam, besides the obvious aesthetics, is to leave a protective CO2 blanket on the beer to protect it from the effects of O2. It's mentioned in this video.
@passedpawn i hope the gibberish that is my comment above is another reason to upgrade the mobile interface! It’s nearly impossible to edit text you’ve typed while on a mobile phone!