over carbonation and head retention

nigel6 · Jun 20, 2013

Firstly I am fairly new to this brewing lark so please bear with me.

I have now produced half a dozen cider brews which have turned out fairly well and as a result I decided to branch out into a few other beers to stock up for the summer BBQ's if we get a summer. I have since produced an Irish stout and an English IPA. My Stout has now been in bottles for 6 weeks and a test bottle proved to be quite good in both body, texture and head retention. However my IPA is clear refreshing but has no head retention. I have noticed that the bottles are well carbonated and my records show that I added 120g of sugar to batch carbonate 22 litres. The resultant IPA brew is well carbonated similar to my cider brew and I am not sure that it is over carbonated. Might this be the source of the poor head retention

RobWalker · Jun 21, 2013

did you brew it with white sugar? if so, that's probably your answer. malt = head retention.

graysalchemy · Jun 21, 2013

Also 120g is probably a tad high 80-100g would be better. :thumb: :thumb:

But as Rob says if you used sugar then there there would be less head retention.

nigel6 · Jun 21, 2013

No I brewed the IPA using Coopers DMA specifically as it was quoted to produce a better head retention than cane sugar. When you open a bottle it has a vigorous carbonation producing quite large bubbles but the bottles do not overflow. I have left each bottle for a minute to calm down before pouring and that produces a good head but its like the old Guinness in bottles where the head disappears in about a minute.
I have made sure that each glass is clean and there is certainly no residual soap in the glass.

PD · Jun 21, 2013

large bubbles in the glass is usually an indication that its still very young and needs to be left for longer in the bottle....imho

nigel6 · Jun 21, 2013

The Irish stout was primed with 75g of cane sugar to 21 litres and has been in the bottle for 6 weeks and the IPA for nearly 10. i do feel that I added too much sugar when priming the IPA, however perhaps I should wait a few more weeks and see what results then.

nigel6 · Jun 22, 2013

I've now had another look at a number of online bulk priming calculators and it looks like I have primed at a level to achieve maximum carbonation for an IPA. Most calculators suggest a co2 level of between 1.5 and 2.3 for IPA and a level of 2.3 would require 120g of cane sugar for 22 litres. I think I should have pitched it more towards the 1.5 which would require approx 65g.

RobWalker · Jun 22, 2013

welp, as long as they're not hitting the ceiling when you open them, you can enjoy this batch and know for next time :lol:

PD · Jun 22, 2013

wear a Sou'wester when opening....

nigel6 · Jun 24, 2013

not that lively. The flavour is good but there is not the creamyness that I would have expected although thats probably due to the over carbonation. Will put it down to the learning process.