Brewing, fermentation and head retention

[Ghillie]

I'm going to try a narrow erm ... dare I say it - Carling - glass.

I use a Tennents glass for my lagers and it's superb. That wee etched bit on the bottom will keep the head on your beer for the entire pint.

 

[The Baron]

the surface area is smaller on a tall/carling glass which aids head retention

 

[Sadfield]

@Sadfield I do check mash pH I have some fairly good water testing gear here, but I have been a bit loathe to start chucking chemicals in my beer! I usually get mash pH at about 5.8 - 6 which I know is a bit high and I have just once used citric acid to bring the pH down, I got down to a pH of 5.3 but I am sure I could taste it - fresh green apples - in the beer.Our water is from a chalk aquifer and as such is quite hard with calcium which is around the 250 mg/l (Calcium carbonate) mark. I have some tartaric acid arriving this week as it seems to be the dog's dangly bits for adjusting mash pH.

I'm going to ban the missus from the brewery! Everything gets lathered in fairy! I clean the barrels though, and only ever use a bit of WVP or chlorine/acid water and then usually campden tablet, drain and then star-san the tops and caps and my hands and just about anything else that looks like touching the beer on the cold-side. It could be the bottles! She is sat at the side of me reading this - so I have to be diplomatic.

I still love the trick with the syringe!

The Graham Wheeler approach of pre-boiling brewing liquor to remove carbonates may be worth looking at. Simple, but effective.

 

[Portreath]

Yep, I have to say my bottled porters recently have loads of gas, plenty of fizz when opened, a great head to start, plenty of bubbles clinging to the glass. it's almost like the carbonation blows the head off!
Even though I'm dry Jan I might open one later and take a few pics. purely for research!

 

[JohnB]

@Portreath sounds exactly like my problem - and yet, my pale ales/bitters the head follows the beer down the glass a treat. I am now thinking it might be "Fairy" faerie with the washing up liquid. That's going to be my first stop.

I have a pint (bitter) at the side of me now, it's been there for the last few minutes (about 10 minutes, I'm slow today), I'm 3/4 way through the glass and it still has a slight head and cobweb down the glass. And it's at it's very best right now. Used Dutto's 2+2+2 regime and it is spot on - it's actually 2+2+ about 3 now.

@Sadfield I'll have a look at that water treatment thing as well. I do know I mash at to high (alkaline) pH for my own good and it has to be the next thing to sort out. The Graham Wheeler water treatment spreadsheet is on Jim's Beerkit web site. Thanks for that. And it'll only need doing the once to work out a formula for a water profile for each different brew. Anglian Water have been good enough to send me a full analysis from the last survey for our treatment works. So a big Thumbs Up to them - they were very good about it.

 

[Cwrw666]

Never let washing up liquid near any of your brewing gear, including bottles.
Obviously you'll have to use it on glasses covered with fingerprints but you're going to have to rinse and rinse again to get rid of the traces left behind.
I poured 2 bottles of the same beer - one into my tankard, the other into a well rinsed glass. Guess what, the tankard had a huge head, the glass none at all. I never wash the tankard...

 

[Mavroz]

I do not have a problem with my beers, they are all bottled. I use rolled oats and barley as part of all my mashes always now.
If I use nucleated (etched) glasses, I sometimes even get froth over on the glass if i pour too quickly, which may require a top up for a full pint from another bottle.
One thing I have noticed is with the ciders I made, etched glasses keep the "fizz" all the way through the pint, flat (unetched) glasses lose the fizz around the half pint level.
All my glasses go through the dishwasher on a delicate wash (saves the glass prints fading) with no fairy wash liquid in sight although a fairy platinum tablet is used in the dishwasher along with salt and rinse aid.

 

[matt76]

Based on a tip i got on this forum, I've found flaked barley (up to 9%) adds head retention body and mouth feel - see here

 

[Portreath]

I use Torrified wheat or Flaked Barley (whichever I have to hand) in my stouts and porters, even my mild and bitters come to that. So it still begs the questions why the bottle brews don't hold the head as opposed to the good head retention from barreled brews

 

[Portreath]

Following the syringe suggestion by @Dutto I gave it a go, and blow me it only works (not that I doubted it would) and below is a picture to prove it. This is a stout I bottled on 10th November. Tastes great, but within a few mins of being poured the head disperses. 450g of flaked barley in a 23l batch. The head was gained using the syringe method. By the way, this was as flat as a Witches T*T seconds after pouring.

The image below is a porter I put to barrel on 31st October. The head retention is amazing (tastes great too) what's interesting is the density of the bubbles halfway through the head. Same glass only rinsed with water. This was a 16ltr batch with 150g of torrified wheat. Food for thought eh.

 

[Mavroz]

I use Torrified wheat or Flaked Barley (whichever I have to hand) in my stouts and porters, even my mild and bitters come to that. So it still begs the questions why the bottle brews don't hold the head as opposed to the good head retention from barreled brews

That I can't answer as I use bottles and keep the head well.
Strange, what method are you using to carb bottles? I batch liquid dextrose solution into bottling bucket.

 

[Portreath]

For that batch I used Wilko's carb bombs. Only because I was given a couple of bags as freebies. Do you make the liquid primer yourself then add it a few hours before bottling?

 

[foxbat]

Here's how to test and prepare a glass that you suspect might have detergent residue:

1. Wet the inside of the glass then sprinkle salt around the inside walls. If it sticks where it lands then the glass is free of detergent. If it slips off to the bottom then the glass is not ready for beer!
2. If you fail point #1 get a piece of kitchen roll and use it to rub salt around the inside of the glass. Rinse with tap water.
3. Repeat test #1. The salt should now stay put where it lands and when you rinse you'll notice the water sheeting on the inside and not shrinking back. Your glass is ready for beer!

 

[Mavroz]

For that batch I used Wilko's carb bombs. Only because I was given a couple of bags as freebies. Do you make the liquid primer yourself then add it a few hours before bottling?

Yes, I make the liquid primer using boiling water and dextrose sugar, letting it cooc before slowly stirring it into the brew in the bottling bucket after syphoning over from the FV.

 

[bobukbrewer]

My pale beers have good head retention in a schooner glass. If I pour them into my ***** Tesco pint glasses, they look like they're not even carbed. (ghillie)

You pour the beer differently according to glass shape, and wash and rinse the 2 glasses identically and repeat the experiment please and as a double check also do it with Old Peculier

 

[Dutto]

Here's how to test and prepare a glass that you suspect might have detergent residue:
..........

Agreed (and like the tip) which is why ALL detergent is banned from my house!

After many years of training (and multiple failures) I have managed to get across to SWMBO that detergents remove all of the non-stick properties from cast-iron, stainless steel and other "conditioned" equipment such as frying-pans, saucepans, woks, griddles etc.

Without using a detergent, if something sticks to a utensil all that is needed is to sit it in cold water for an hour and then brush it off with a stainless steel pad.

With beer glasses and jugs there is no contact with grease or fat, so thankfully there is never a need to do anything other than dry them with a clean towel or kitchen paper.

 

[bobukbrewer]

....except when eating a full fry up eg mixed grill for the evening meal, when some fat will be transferred to the beer glass.........

 

[Dutto]

....except when eating a full fry up eg mixed grill for the evening meal, when some fat will be transferred to the beer glass.........

A man after my own heart! (It's even worse for us with whiskers!)

A mate of mine once said that he would eat a "breakfast fry up" for every meal of the day ...

... if only he could find a wine to go with it!

 

[IainM]

I think some of it is down to how the beer gets into the glass. I've noticed with cornies I get a better head than bottles. We pour bottles carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment, so the beer doesn't get as agitated, so the CO2 bubbles just nucleate and grow bigger on the way up. With more turbulence, though, they break apart into smaller bubbles, which are then stabilised by the amphipathic stuff in the malt/torrified wheat etc. Sparkler taps and Dutto's syringe both create turbulence.