How do you create a beer with good head

[MHB]

The article linked by verysupple is about the best information outside professional literature that I have seen. It reads like a popular science version of Foam by Charlie Bamforth (a good investment for anyone Pro Brewing or going that way).

The big take home message
"Good foam seems to follow good general brewing practices. There is no silver bullet to getting good foam, so focus on making good beer and the foam should come naturally."
What makes the biggest difference, to my mind isn't so much the foam building ingredients/processes as the foam degrading ones. Of what we have control over, yeast stress is the most important, contact time with old yeast being a big part of that.
Too long on old yeast will kill foam!
Mark

Edit crap formatting
M

 

[Randai]

So recently listened to a brew strong episode on the brewing network and they said if you have excess splashing about that it could use up the proteins that are used for long lasting head. e.g only foam fully once.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/brew-strong-foam/

Now I no-chill at the moment and do just pour the whole cube in and it splashes around and it gets a huge rocky head persistent once poured into the fermenter and my head retention is pretty bad, but initial head is alright.


Anyone had any experience with this sloshing about (say even shaking the fermenter) causing poor head retention.

I'll try and be more gentle next beer and see if the head stays more or not.

 

[wereprawn]

So recently listened to a brew strong episode on the brewing network and they said if you have excess splashing about that it could use up the proteins that are used for long lasting head. e.g only foam fully once.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/brew-strong-foam/

Now I no-chill at the moment and do just pour the whole cube in and it splashes around and it gets a huge rocky head persistent once poured into the fermenter and my head retention is pretty bad, but initial head is alright.


Anyone had any experience with this sloshing about (say even shaking the fermenter) causing poor head retention.

I'll try and be more gentle next beer and see if the head stays more or not.

I have a good 15 cm of foam after transferring from urn to FV and haven't come across any problems with formation or retention of head . Most brewers actively try for a well aerated/oxygenated wort. May be worth searching this forum for other causes of poor foam.

 

[Randai]

I have a good 15 cm of foam after transferring from urn to FV and haven't come across any problems with formation or retention of head . Most brewers actively try for a well aerated/oxygenated wort. May be worth searching this forum for other causes of poor foam.

Fair enough. I'll have a go over some other things as well, might have missed something the last time I tried really looking into foam formation.

But it is helpful to know that others have had a huge amount of foam while they transfer into the FV.

 

[MHB]

There are a finite amount of foam building ingredients in a wort, mostly proteins and alpha acids (yes that's why head tastes bitter than the beer) unless you loose them they should pretty much all end up in the beer.
Long protein rests will degrade proteins to peptides if you wait long enough, reducing the amount of head building medium molecular weight proteins (mostly LTP and Protein Z), personally I think with modern malt a protein rest is mostly a WOFTAM unless you have a lot of unmalted cereal adjunct.
The foam on boiling wort is rich in foam builders - don't skim the kettle, very long (3h+) boils can reduce useful protein, the foam in the krausen also contains lots of head builders - blow off tubes can reduce head, stale hops can be head negative as can mould on malt (no one here would use crap ingredients even if they were free would we) and Oxidisation products can reduce head. perhaps that is what the link above is talking about. Lots of otherwise benign bacteria can be very bad for head. Detergents and oils are also head killers, as are some of the lipids (oils - sort of) in trub so avoid excess trub transfer.
The enzyme Protease A produced by old/stressed yeast is probably the worst head killer of all.

High hopping levels improves head, Zn in the finished beer is important, especially in high alcohol beer (alcohol is head negative).
As always good brewing practice makes beer that holds a head.
Mark

 

[rude]

So recently listened to a brew strong episode on the brewing network and they said if you have excess splashing about that it could use up the proteins that are used for long lasting head. e.g only foam fully once.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/brew-strong-foam/

Now I no-chill at the moment and do just pour the whole cube in and it splashes around and it gets a huge rocky head persistent once poured into the fermenter and my head retention is pretty bad, but initial head is alright.


Anyone had any experience with this sloshing about (say even shaking the fermenter) causing poor head retention.

I'll try and be more gentle next beer and see if the head stays more or not.

Mate havent listened to the brew strong but splashing youre wort into fermenter is a bonus IMHO
o2 ing the wort for the yeast to make a good start is a no chill bonus

Were they talking about splashing when the wort is hot ?

 

[Randai]

Mate havent listened to the brew strong but splashing youre wort into fermenter is a bonus IMHO
o2 ing the wort for the yeast to make a good start is a no chill bonus

Were they talking about splashing when the wort is hot ?

Actually they were talking about one specific thing. Basically anything that was causing it to foam, would end up coagulating the proteins out (or something along those lines). Which would degrade the head retention in a future foaming.

So as an example they foamed an entire bottle of beer from a tap, then recarbed it, using the same system and noticed a lot of chunks on the bottle of the bottom and when pouring it, it did have a head, but it quickly disappeared.

Jon Palmer was saying something along the lines of even "O2ing your wort can reduce the head formation some what". But he used the example of putting a beer stone in and putting pure O2 in, which I don't have any first hand experience so I can't tell you if that'd be "smoother" or less foam generating.

Its why it got me thinking about it, because as you exactly said, the oxygenation helps your ferment and you'd definitely want it in there, but at the same time if it does degrade it, how do you balance those two things

There are a finite amount of foam building ingredients in a wort, mostly proteins and alpha acids (yes that's why head tastes bitter than the beer) unless you loose them they should pretty much all end up in the beer.
Long protein rests will degrade proteins to peptides if you wait long enough, reducing the amount of head building medium molecular weight proteins (mostly LTP and Protein Z), personally I think with modern malt a protein rest is mostly a WOFTAM unless you have a lot of unmalted cereal adjunct.
The foam on boiling wort is rich in foam builders - don't skim the kettle, very long (3h+) boils can reduce useful protein, the foam in the krausen also contains lots of head builders - blow off tubes can reduce head, stale hops can be head negative as can mould on malt (no one here would use crap ingredients even if they were free would we) and Oxidisation products can reduce head. perhaps that is what the link above is talking about. Lots of otherwise benign bacteria can be very bad for head. Detergents and oils are also head killers, as are some of the lipids (oils - sort of) in trub so avoid excess trub transfer.
The enzyme Protease A produced by old/stressed yeast is probably the worst head killer of all.

High hopping levels improves head, Zn in the finished beer is important, especially in high alcohol beer (alcohol is head negative).
As always good brewing practice makes beer that holds a head.
Mark

In this case it was purely the foaming part I believe. Unless I misunderstood it. Which is entirely possible. e.g "Foaming once"

Just thought I'd chuck it out there as one of the potential culprits.
I mean there is a bunch of other reasons as well as you've listed. So a lot of things for me personally to investigate into my own process.

 

[MHB]

Hell yes, there are lots of things that effect every possible feature of a beer, no one can address all of them in every beer and in lots of cases there will be more than one choice both of them will have both up and down sides.

That said do the basics well and its odds on you will make good beer, with a good head.
Mark