Is Head Over-rated?

[Wisey]

You dirty buggers, my last few brews with US-05 and wheat are pretty headless, but they are great beers to taste......

Is it something im doing? I poured them out of bottles and they are headless.

 

[raven19]

Dirty indeed mate.

Had to post something under this thread topic...

No it is not over-rated!!!!!!

But seriously though, my wheats tend to have less head from the keg than other ales and porters - when they are all carbed and served at the same temp.

You can carb them up a bit more though from my understanding. I only have 1 reg so its 1 pressure for all beers for me.

In your bottles are they the same priming sugar as other beers that are fine in regards to a frothy head?

 

[pokolbinguy]

Well you got my attention

From what I gather about head (on my beers.... :huh there is a number of things that can screw with it:

- Clean glasses...if the glass has not been rinsed properly it can stuff the head
- Carbonation problem
- Too cold??? Not sure about this one
- Protein problem in the beer...not sure about this one either


Actually I just realised I don't know squat about this topic....can someone enlighten us???

 

[mika]

A big head is wasted beer, as long as there's a thin layer of foam over the top, mostly to act as a barrier to flying things, I'm happy.

 

[Wisey]

A big head isnt wasted beer, I can suck harder then a catholic school girl to get through it.... but when you dont get it - you sorta miss it.

 

[amiddler]

+1 for a clean glass.
I thought that this was s*#t until I realised one night while poring my old man a beer, the glass I use every night and rinse after use, had NO head while Dad's glass had head galore. And the head was perfect right to the last drop.

I to know very little about the process of head on beer but to start with a slightly chilled and very clean glass is the way to go.

Drew

PS (edit) Doesn't a thick creamy head trap more of the hop arroma's? A good reason to have a good head on the beer. Just a thought.

 

[mwd]

Most of the commercial bottled beers I pour have very little head and it drops quickly.

Best heads I have had are from FWKs and K&B with a fair bit of crystal.

Need to get the syringe pump as my stout is headless and so sadly lacking to nitrogen injected examples.

 

[newguy]

How much wheat? The only beers I brew with wheat are weizens and they use 50-67% wheat malt and I have had head problems with them in the past. I haven't been able to narrow down the exact reason why but I'll relate what I've observed. The first few weizens I ever brewed employed a protein rest and they had a mousse-like head. Then for some reason the next few batches lost their head even though my process remained the same. At that point I dropped the protein rest and have had thick moussy heads ever since.

 

[Cocko]

I bet that Butters guy would know... h34r:

 

[rackemup]

Barroom, yes - bedroom,no



but seriously...adding whaet malt will haelp with head retention. just alittle bit will do innany style of beer, that and a clean glass (just rinse in very hot water to wash away grease and fats which can kill haed) and you should be right

 

[avaneyk]

How much wheat? The only beers I brew with wheat are weizens and they use 50-67% wheat malt and I have had head problems with them in the past. I haven't been able to narrow down the exact reason why but I'll relate what I've observed. The first few weizens I ever brewed employed a protein rest and they had a mousse-like head. Then for some reason the next few batches lost their head even though my process remained the same. At that point I dropped the protein rest and have had thick moussy heads ever since.

I could be wrong - and if so then someone can correct me - but I read someone on here a while back talking about protein rests being bad for highly modified malts. Did you change your source of wheat malt when you first lost the foamy head?

 

[newguy]

I could be wrong - and if so then someone can correct me - but I read someone on here a while back talking about protein rests being bad for highly modified malts. Did you change your source of wheat malt when you first lost the foamy head?

That may be part of the issue in my case but to be honest I haven't been able to run some definitive trials to figure it out. I almost certainly did change the source of wheat malt too as I used to buy whatever little 1kg baggies of malt the HBS had on hand in the early days but I then switched to buying it in bulk (25kg at a time).

 

[matti]

Providing there is no grease or residual detergent that is detrimental to achieving a head, you should still achieve a little foaming with us-05.

Mind you that US-05 is a very effective yeast that will chews trough most complex sugars resulting the beer is going to be thinner then with a less attenuating yeast.

In AG it also depends on the grain bill, mash regime and a few other things that some one else can fill in.
With kits and bits you need to exchange sugar with malts and/or add 5% Maltodextrines.

Maltodextrines are carbohydrates that doesn't convert and leave the beer with a bigger body and most cases a good
head.

that is only skimmin' the top

 

[neonmeate]

+1 for a clean glass.
I thought that this was s*#t until I realised one night while poring my old man a beer, the glass I use every night and rinse after use, had NO head while Dad's glass had head galore. And the head was perfect right to the last drop.

i used to do this too (rinsing) based on some urban myth i heard somewhere. always led to bad head. if the bubbles are sticking to the side of the glass you're in trouble.

the other TERRIBLE thing for head is people who either dry their glasses upside down on a dirty teatowel, or keep them all upside down. always leads to chuxwipe flavours, bubbles sticking to the side, and no head on the beer. (for this reason i usually drink out of a bottle when round at someone's house - this upsidedown glass thing is very widespread).

now it's detergent, hot water, rinse and dry and put away straight up so it's got air.

 

[Stuster]

It's certainly not that wheat malt will give you a perfect head. As newguy mentioned, even wheat beers can have little or no head. I certainly made one wheat beer with no head at all. It's really a myth that it'll solve all issues. A clean glass is definitely a good start. One other possible issue can be fermentation temperature. If you ferment too warm for that yeast, you can get fusel alcohols being produced which tend to kill head. So what temp were you fermenting at?

This BYO article says basically what I've just said, link.

 

[neonmeate]

and fusels from underpitching too can cause a crap head. but since yer using dry yeast i wouldn't think thatd be it.

 

[QldKev]

Shit - when I read this title I though I had just posted about the hop buy on the wrong forum....

QldKev