How To Get A Good Head On Beer

[Lindsay Dive]

I use the dishwasher BUT, I use a rinse aid called Commercial which is the same as they use in Pubs and Clubs for rinsing their glasses.

 

[RobboMC]

Does normal household rinse aid like 'Finish' do anything bad to the head?

 

[maxy007]

50/50 dry malt powder and Brew Enhancer turns most ale kits into good beer. Make sure you dissolve the light malt in boiling water, it's quite difficult to dissolve it in the fermenter otherwise.

Can you get 500gms of brew enhancer 2 and 500gms of dry malt from the local HBS or Big W? I usually buy my stuff from Big W cause the better half works there and we get 5% discount
AFAIK they only sell 1kg of brew enhancer 2. I don't think I've seen dry malt at Big W.

Cheers,

Maxy

 

[domonsura]

Does normal household rinse aid like 'Finish' do anything bad to the head?

OH YEAH. Definitely.

Keep detergents away from your beer vessels, I wash them by hand with nice hot water and nothing else. Detergent residues in beer glasses kill head quick as a flash.

At worst case if they must be washed with detergent/rinse aid and all that rubbish, rinse them out thoroughly with really hot water whilst still hot from the wash. (Commercial detergents and rinse aids from pubs will still cause head loss if there is too much being metered out in the wash, pub washers are very (usually) carefully metered and monitored to prevent this, especially as the solutions usually aren't cheap, and residues make for slimy glasses, flat beer and p****d off customers, I've spent years working in pubs with crap under maintained washers that cause these problems.....)

 

[braufrau]

If you are talking about Cooper's Brew Enhancer #2, one thing to consider is that it's actually half sugar :blink:

Also, if you are content with the taste and don't want to make bitter toucans, try using the lightest liquid malt you can get in the place of your sugar/booster/enhancer/whatever.

A bit of wheat malt extract should also help give you that "long life" head

PZ.

My husband has just started on a little ditty I call "cheapskate stout", because its made from
a supermarket kit plus everything else that was in the cupboard.

The head is incredible. Sort of like chocolate mousse.
Its no wonder, the recipe included 450g of crystal malt and about 300g wheat malt. :lol:

The rest was a coopers stout kit, 300g sugar and 14g saaz hops. CSA yeast.

-braufrau