A good head.

[terrym]

As others have said use up to 10% Torrified Wheat in the mash. Thats what some commercial breweries do, including Black Sheep Brewery as I found out on their brewery tour.

 

[Beersort]

I believe Thornbridge are another brewery known to use torrified wheat. Did their tour and they definitely mentioned it a little bit

 

[Braufather]

some of my my beers have decent head but i seem to have a problem with stout. PH fine, oats in recipe should help, but whilst it has an initial head it soon disappears to zero. this has happened both times ive done a stout , following different recipes. other factors remain the same for other brews that have retention so it seems just with stouts? Anyone any ideas?

 

[Covrich]

What strenght are the stouts? what glassware do you use how do you clean it ect.. a few things to consider

 

[Sadfield]

http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/05/07/mash-ph-and-why-it-matters-for-all-grain-beer-brewing/

I read this Clint on the back of the above. Explains nicely. Although make yourself a cuppa !


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One important point missing from this is that pH rises with temperature, and due to the research into the effect of pH being done in laboratory and not a brewery, the convention for taking measurements is at room temperature not actual mash temperature and thus the 5.2 - 5.6 range applies to room temperature samples. Common practice is to take a sample at around 10minutes. Have a plate and a shot glass cooling in the freezer, poor your sample onto the plate and then into the shot glass. This will rapidly cool the sample and should leave most grain matter on the plate and just wort in the glass.

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[suffolk]

Any tricks of the trade for getting a good head ?


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Buy the wife flowers

 

[pvt_ak]

Buy the wife flowers

Flowers and a meal , maybe she'll let me have a Grainfather too 🤣


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[Irishwizard]

Amen to that.

This is really sticking in my craw. There is some great advice for the AG brewer regarding foam positive grain additions and avoiding detergents, but if you're an All Grain brewer and resorting to using syringes to solve the problem you've lost the plot. A scrape with a table knife may be an instant solution to burnt toast, however reducing the toasting time will ensure perfect toast every time. Get your mash pH and grist right and you will have no head retention problems, and protect yourself from numerous other issues.

From braukaiser.com



Will a syringe provide all those benefits?

There quite a few here who have lost the plot, having looked at loads of posts.
Sometimes too much information is a bad thing.
In the emerald isle we keep things simple....gives us more time to worry about the rest of the sh!t in life.

 

[thewelshwizard1]

Yes a nice cap is what you want

I think we all got carried away once or twice :lol:

Now that's a head hahahahaha :lol:

 

[Clint]

...AND a grainfather! That's just filth...I've heard enough!

 

[Ajhutch]

Ultimately any question of what balance of proteins, starches and sugars you get into your wort and therefore your beer for a given grain bill is first and foremost influenced by the mash. Carbonation level will help with head retention but you need a certain type of protein to form the foam in the first place. I'd recommend looking up Brew Strong podcast episode 3, I listened to it the other day. It's 9 years old and got quite techy but had practical tips too

Edit - apologies, I should have read others' responses before posting, I've duplicated comments made more helpfully before.

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[Gunge]

You don't need science / equations / degrees in applied biochemistry etc. You need flaked barley. We're making beer to get leathered with, not a super-coolant for nuclear reactors or summat. Why complicate matters?

 

[Irishwizard]

You don't need science / equations / degrees in applied biochemistry etc. You need flaked barley. We're making beer to get leathered with, not a super-coolant for nuclear reactors or summat. Why complicate matters?

'Cos complicated can make make you look smarter:mrgreen:

 

[Ajhutch]

You don't need science / equations / degrees in applied biochemistry etc. You need flaked barley. We're making beer to get leathered with, not a super-coolant for nuclear reactors or summat. Why complicate matters?

Hey don't knock it, flaked barley never put a man on the moon.

All I'm trying to say is that, for example, with the wrong mash conditions you could add flaked barley and still not get a head on your beer. Equally with the right mash conditions you can get a long lasting head on, for example, an all lager malt beer.


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[Gunge]

Hey don't knock it, flaked barley never put a man on the moon.

Ha ha excellent, made me chuckle that! Can just see the Apollo control room and everything going wrong then this guy comes rushing in with a barrowload of flaked barley to save the day whilst all the computers an' stuff are blowing up.

 

[pvt_ak]

Ha ha excellent, made me chuckle that! Can just see the Apollo control room and everything going wrong then this guy comes rushing in with a barrowload of flaked barley to save the day whilst all the computers an' stuff are blowing up.

I've got a problem with a tree I can't kill off in the garden.
Do you think a barrow load of flaked barley over the stump may do it ? 🤣🤣


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[Gunge]

I've got a problem with a tree I can't kill off in the garden.
Do you think a barrow load of flaked barley over the stump may do it ? 🤣🤣


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It's gotta be worth a try - on special offer at H&B right now!

 

[Gunge]

But seriously, I'm suggesting trying the simple stuff before splitting the atom...

 

[Chippy_Tea]

A commonly accepted optimal range for mash pH is 5.2 - 5.7 with 5.5 being optimal for starch conversion activity but many authors report wort and beer quality benefits if the pH is lowered into the 5.2 - 5.4 range [Kunze, 2007][Narziss, 2005]. Kunze in particular lists the following benefits for a mash pH as low as 5.2. Since it is a good and fairly comprehensive list I cited it here. Some of these benefits listed will be explained in the following sections [Kunze, 2007]:

The enzymatic activity in the mash is increased as all important enzymes get activated. (except for alpha amylase which starts to suffer at a pH below 5.6)
More zinc, an essential yeast nutrient, goes into solution
The extract yield (efficiency) is improved
The protein coagulation and precipitation is improved (improved break formation)
The redox potential is improved which results in a lower susceptibility to oxygen.
The run-off speed is improved
The color increase during the wort boil is reduced
Better trub precipitation and faster pH drop lead to faster fermentation and greater attenuation of the beer.
Lover viscosity improves filterability
The taste of the beer is more rounded, fuller and softer. The beer is crisper, more fresh and shows more character.
The hop bitterness is more pleasant and doesn't linger
The foam is more stable and denser
The color of the beer is lighter
Mash oxidation is reduced since the main culprit, the lipoxigenase enzyme, doesn't work well at low mash pH conditions
Haze stability is improved
Beer digestion is stimulated. This is a positive effect of the lactic acid
Susceptibility to microbial spoilage is reduced through
Lower beer pH: beer spoilage organism don't grow below a pH of 4.4
Higher attenuation
Will a syringe provide all those benefits?

No but to be fair he never said it would!

.

 

[Ajhutch]

But seriously, I'm suggesting trying the simple stuff before splitting the atom...

Very fair approach


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