Head Retention

[muckey]

headmaster glasses are great with commercial beers or beers with fairly high carbonation.

for beers like english ales with relatively low carb, I reckon they'd send the beer flat pretty quick because the etching gives a site for the co2 to form bubbles and reinforce the head

FWIW I only use cheap glasses that are cleaned properly.
if you add some carapils or other specialties and move away from simple sugars (cane sugar, dextrose) and more into malt (more body due to complex sugars and proteins) your head retention will be better

(somebody mentioned maltodextrin earlier and that will give more body but no flavour so I wouldnt bother with it personally)

cheers

 

[mwd]

I have only done one Fresh Wort Kit and head retention is superb lacing down the glass to the very end. (BrewCellar Last Harvest Amber )

Most of my Kit and bits efforts may be quite tasty but don't really hold up in the foamy head department. Could be All Grain versus Extracts. ??

Not sure that proves anything because years ago in the U.K. Northern Beers all had a nice creamy head while Southern beers had virtually no head at all. Thats why up in the North a pint glass was always oversize with a mark and down south they filled up to the brim in a standard pint tulip glass. ( Linking up with the VB is wonderful thread elsewhere ) :icon_cheers:

 

[manticle]

I get decent head with all my brews once they've carbed up. Recent reports from a pilsner bottle given away suggested the head disappeared about 2/3 down which may have been due to higher alcohol content.

I do use a cellar plus beer head improver - added with a bit of cold water around the same time as finings. Purists may shudder. It's active ingredient is Propylene Glycol Alginate. It doesn't change the flavour as far as I can tell and you only need 2 grams in 23 L so I see it in the same way I see irish moss or finings.

 

[woodmac66]

Wow..... do I have a lot to learn .... Scary Part is I understood most of that .
You guys are awesome with the advice and thanks heaps to you all .

Thunderlips i was using only the CPA with the #2 Brew Enhancer...
I have taken Scruffys adive as a starting point and visited my local Brew Shop today and bought some dried malt and fuggles for the next batch and maybe add some grain in the batch after that with the extra hops to compare the differnce and learn what impacts thingd are having one at a time.

I am also going to get some Headmaster Glasses so thanks for the Heads up on them.

Anyone that can tell me where to get them i would really appreciate it.

Thanks again ! :icon_cheers:

 

[bum]

I am also going to get some Headmaster Glasses so thanks for the Heads up on them.

Anyone that can tell me where to get them i would really appreciate it.

I got mine from a bloke on eBay who regularly lists Headmaster schooners and pots. For what it is worth I don't think they're all that amazing - I just like the thickness (and drinking from the same glasses they drink from in the pub impresses mates).

 

[Thunderlips]

I am also going to get some Headmaster Glasses so thanks for the Heads up on them.

I've got some, more out of curiosity than anything else.

It's all personal preference but I'm one of those that consider it cheating and I'm pretty much too ashamed to use them on my guests

 

[RobboMC]

When I started out I was seriously dissappointed with the head retention on my Coopers pale ale. Just as you have, my first brews were
CPA cans with BE2 and carbonation drops. Head retention was woeful.

1)

 

[RobboMC]

When I started out I was seriously dissappointed with the head retention on my Coopers pale ale. Just as you have, my first brews were
CPA cans with BE2 and carbonation drops. Head retention was woeful.

1) stop using BE2 and use dry malt. Once you're adding more than 750g of malt you need to be boiling in hops to balance the malt sweetness ( unless you like sweet beer )

2) buy a bottling bucket and start bulk priming instead of using carb drops ( assuming you are ),
then you can up the carbonation slightly, so the internal bubbling supports the head for longer.

3) use the more expensive kits, they have more malt and less sugar. IMHO Muntons make really excellent kits and well worth the extra $
the beer in my small pic was made with a Muntons kit, check out the head on it.

Accept that good beer doesn't have to have great head retention, it's for show and to impress visitors, but most non-brewers are more impressed with the head than with the taste. However fortunately beers that hold a great head normally taste pretty good as well. Good lawn mower lager has low head so you can slam it down fast as that old Solo ad went.

 

[Cube]

Accept that good beer doesn't have to have great head retention, it's for show and to impress visitors, but most non-brewers are more impressed with the head than with the taste. However fortunately beers that hold a great head normally taste pretty good as well. Good lawn mower lager has low head so you can slam it down fast as that old Solo ad went.

Right on the button with better head = better beer. Of course it has to be a good beer to start with

The longer the head is retained, the longer the aroma sticks around in the beer and we taste with our noses. The head acts as a blanket on top of the beer. No head on a hoppy beer will result in hop aromo loss.