Carbonation bubble size

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

a1149913

Well-Known Member
Joined
22/11/10
Messages
218
Reaction score
11
Location
Adelaide
Might be a weird question, but is there a reason for different bubble size following carbonation. Eg, some beers have really fine bubbles and some have quite large ones which i find changes the beer completely.

I wasn't quite sure how to efficiently search for an answer!

Thanks, jacob
 
Well, I'm not professing to be an expert on the matter, but...

I've noticed that the bubbles in my beer get finer after a bit of aging/conditioning. This leads me to think that it has something to do with the size of the particles that are acting as nucleation sites - the larger particles will precipitate to the bottom after a while, only leaving smaller nucleation sites.

This may also be supported by my experience using different ingredients. Some give a dense creamy head (small bubbles) and others a more fluffy, short lived head (large bubbles). Again, my theory is that different ingredients leave different sized particles in the beer, thus different bubble sizes.

Of course I'd be gladly corrected if there's something else going on. Actually, come to think of it, seeing as the foam is generally made from proteins,maybe it has more to do with the types of proteins in the beer?

Sorry for the ramble, typing while thinking.
 
Refrigerating the beer for at least a few days disperses the co2 more evenly and makes for much finer bubbles I've found. And beer from the keg has even smoother head. Mmmmmm.... all this typing has made me thirsty, time to pour a beer.
 
This will be no help at all - but I recall hearing something about different proteins or enzymes being in action one pressing out and one causing cohesion holding the bubble together and the levels of them independantly/codependantly causing the sizes. Also yes I read somewhere that the longer beer is conditioned the smaller or finer the bubbles become - no reason given or recalled.

You can thank me for the pointless ramble later.
And I am not even drunk!
 
i tend to find that if i force carb it at 8deg then serve it at 4 the bubbles seem smaller and beer a tad creamier
 
Great question, I've always thought this plays a huge role in how a beer goes down. Never known the answer though :ph34r: . It needs more research that's for sure
 
I thought it might have something to do with the grain bill with some grains ie wheat, changing the head/froth composition
 
Back
Top