Help! My trappist is like a fizzy drink!

[LRAT]

Howdy,

Six months ago I made a trappist beer. I used the following ingredients:
13.9 kg Weyermann extra pale malt
1.4 kg Weyermann Munich T1
1.4 kg Candi syrup (Symplicity)
170g Flaked barley
170g Weyermann pale wheat malt

As hops I used:

Hallertauer Mittelfruh
Saaz
Styrian Goldings

The yeast I used was Wyeast 3787 (2 packets of which I made a starter from).

I use rainwater for the mash and added following trace elements to make the water harder (Matching the Westmalle brewery water profile):
CaSO4, CaCO3, MgSO4

I also added Servomyces, Irish Moss and a pinch of crushed coriander seeds and orange peel.

Total batch volume was 42 liters.
I added 2.4 dextrose for further fermentation on the bottle.

The pH is 5.3 and ABV 9.5%

Taste-wise the beer has been great and is matching the profile.
However, when I pour the beer in a glass initially the beer froths but makes a fizzy noise, just like when pouring coke. After about half a minute the froth completely disappears and the beer looks flat.

I am puzzled as I added the crushed barley and wheat for extra head retention. I have no idea why it doesn't retain it's head.
Has anybody out on this forum an insight of what went wrong?
Your feedback and suggestions will be much appreciated as I will be making another batch at the end of next week.
Thanks for your help!

Luke

 

[yankinoz]

The pH of the finished beer is 5.3?

 

[LRAT]

The pH of the finished beer is 5.3?

Sorry, no, the pH of the mash was 5.3.

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

The percentage of raw barley and wheat malt is not very high, I use 10 to 12 % flaked wheat which is in keeping with the style and generally considered enough to improve head retention.

Second think to look at is your mash schedule, if you do a long protein rest this can destroy head retaining protiens, especially in the 40 to 45 C range

 

[LRAT]

The percentage of raw barley and wheat malt is not very high, I use 10 to 12 % flaked wheat which is in keeping with the style and generally considered enough to improve head retention.

Second think to look at is your mash schedule, if you do a long protein rest this can destroy head retaining protiens, especially in the 40 to 45 C range

Doesn't a high percentage of flaked barley/wheat like that make the beer cloudy?

My mash profile is fairly simple:
I bring up the mash water to 68 degrees C, then add the grain and then keep the temperature at 65 degrees C for 50 minutes. I then do a mash out for 10 minutes at 75 degrees C.
Does that sound good to you?
Thanks for your input!

 

[MHB]

FOB (Foam On Beer) is a really big field of study, there are even lots of books written on the subject. Without getting too technical, there isn’t any thing obvious in your ingredients or process that stands out as a problem.

I'm going to post the Complete Beer Fault Guide again, open it and read the section on Head, it talks about a lot of the basic concepts involved in too much, too little and goldilocks amounts of head, it might point you toward a couple of ideas.
One question I do have, is the beer bottled or keged?
If it’s bottled, are all the bottles the same?
The really obvious answer might be an infection. There are lots of infections that are fairly benign in our beer; truth is I doubt anyone brewing at home has nothing but the pitched yeast living in it. There are some infections that will degrade head retention.
One other possibility is the presence of Protease-A, it comes from leaving the beer on old yeast too long (usually over 2 weeks), the protease degrades all the middle weight proteins vital to head retention, too much yeast in packaging, old yeast, fermenting too hot... can all play a role as can an accumulation of head negative processes.
Hope you can pin it down.
Mark

 

[LRAT]

Thanks MHB!
I downloaded the file and will have a good read.
The beer is bottled. I use the Cooper 700ml glass bottles and I clean them with a mixture of water and sodium bicarbonate at 50C. I then rinse with clean water at 45 degrees C.
I then keep them upside down to drain all the water. I then spray a mist of water and Starsan over the bottles. I also inspect each bottle by eye against a light source to make sure they are clean. I never had any bad batch of beer caused by sanitation problems.
I sanitize the caps in a solution of water and Starsan.
I use dextrose as a priming sugar.
Thanks for your suggestions! It seems you are a highly qualified person in this matter.
Cheers,

Luke