Beer losing its head

[BernieRob]

I've taken the advise offered in the past and left my brews alone,rather than brew for 10 days and then drink while carbonating and conditioning. So i have had some good clear bottles of american amber ale and american steam beer. My issue is that although they pour like shop bought ones and taste better than shop bought ones the head lasts about 35 seconds and the ale looks flat. It isnt flat as bubbles come up from the bottom,but no head. This has happened on my last 3 brews. Ive got a turbo cider to bottle this weekend and an american IPA about the 19th. I would like the IPA to keep its head. Any advice?
Thanks

 

[zippy40]

I tend to find that if the beer is slightly overcarbonated then it can fizz quickly and then lose its head quite quick. I also find that when I used brewing sugar alone the head disappears. The more spray malt I subsititute in the recipe the better the head retention.

If you cant get a good head on it, you can buy an additive for the beer in your local HB shop which will aid head retention.

 

[Joeyriles]

A pet hate of mine, this. It can range from the temperature of the beer to the type of detergent that you clean your glasses with!

Does a 'robust pour' from the bottle to a jug to a glass not help?

 

[Leon103]

Type of glass, how glasses and bottles are washed. Type of ingredient

 

[DoctorMick]

Have a look at this post: http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50906

It won't prevent the problem but it's a neat trick to add the head back on to the beer once it has gone.

 

[terrym]

+1 on clean glass regime, wash, rinse, and use dedicated cloth to dry, any sign of tiny bubbles down the glass side and its dirty
Syringe looks a good thing to try
A sophisticated solution might be to try torrified wheat. That's what breweries add for head retention. But it needs to be mashed with a diastase containing grain like pale malt. Try a minimash of 250g pale and 100g TW, sparge, boil then add to the wort.

 

[JapanBrew]

+1 on clean glass regime, wash, rinse, and use dedicated cloth to dry, any sign of tiny bubbles down the glass side and its dirty
Syringe looks a good thing to try
A sophisticated solution might be to try torrified wheat. That's what breweries add for head retention. But it needs to be mashed with a diastase containing grain like pale malt. Try a minimash of 250g pale and 100g TW, sparge, boil then add to the wort.

this is true. Not all grains work the same and if you just use a base malt, you can get no head. I use carapils and a tad bit of wheat.

 

[Pope]

I too struggle to retain head...except when I've made beers with wheat.

I'm not that precious about it though...I'd prefer a head on my beer but so long as it tastes alright and is fizzy, it doesn't bother me too much.

 

[pms67]

I must say, this glass holds a head on it pretty well and its £4.99 in Aldi

 

[Fil]

adding 3-5% wheat to the grain bill will help with head retention and laceing.

using detergents and soaps for cleaning can leave head killing residues that are hard to rinse off which can undermine wheat additions as they wett the beer.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Kit brewing - I include 200g of maltodextrin to aid mouthfeel and head retention.
I also pour into a wet glass to get a better head.

 

[Colonel Porter]

Folks,

I hate flat, headless beer, so over a number of years I've tried a range of things.
The best solution from an ingredients perspective is to add a whole pack of WHEAT DME and some liquorice root powder - I add two good heaped desert spoonfuls in light beers and a bit more in the darker ones. (40 pints). You'd be hard pressed to taste the liquorice and it really seems to keep the beer lively.

The wheat malt seems to produce a creamier head and the liquorice powder improves retention. Some beers "grow" out of the glass it works so well.

As well as detergents I've found that even after washing, glasses that have had milk in them just kill the fizz straight away.

Dishwasher tablets seem to be particularly bad at this.

Col P.

 

[Zephyr259]

Yeah, I struggle to get a decent head on my beers too. My IPA gets a head but it does last long, I'm putting it down to the glasses, and the washing as that beer has 10% wheat and 5% oats.

My newly conditioned oatmeal stout produces a brilliant head however.

 

[Bodleigh Head]

Is this not one of those saucy postcard threads ? :whistle:

Must admit, I can't seem to get enough either.

 

[Ale]

I feel like Im losing my head. Anyone know how to sort that one out????

 

[DoctorMick]

Yeah, I struggle to get a decent head on my beers too. My IPA gets a head but it does last long, I'm putting it down to the glasses, and the washing as that beer has 10% wheat and 5% oats.

My newly conditioned oatmeal stout produces a brilliant head however.

Try a commercial bottled beer. Whenever I have one I don't get a good lasting head so I stopped worrying about it with my home brew a longtime time ago.

 

[JapanBrew]

Just throwing it out there but I've kind of noticed that the ones I used finings with show little head. Might be just a coincidence. But for a long time I kept forgetting to put Irish moss in and just cold crashed the FV before bottling and it seemed like those never had issues. Now I'm religious with the additions and things. And recently it seems the head drops out fast. Has others seen this?

 

[Zephyr259]

Hi Mick, yeah very true. It doesn't overly bother me just something I've observed.

 

[Euro]

Tales from the shed. All the grain ,mashed,sparged and now on the boil for 60 minutes with challenger hops added. Wish I had smelly vision as my shed smells awesome.Bass ale come in at 1.042 Pleased with thar enjoyed it . Chilled out in the shed music on and reading forums.the mash temp was 67 deg and I made the hop dropper and just cable tied the muslin bag to it.

 

[Joeyriles]

I was bought one of the ultra beer wands for my birthday and now I get perfect head (s******) every time.