Stouts

[mike_hillyer]

Funny how many people consider a dark head on stout acceptable or believe you need to use artifical additives to get one. Every stout I've knocked up has a black body and a rocky white head. The only thing that causes anything else is an infection,

cheers,

KIR

 

[phonos]

I think you might want to go tell Coopers that they have an infection then

 

[albrews]

Funny how many people consider a dark head on stout acceptable or believe you need to use artifical additives to get one. Every stout I've knocked up has a black body and a rocky white head. The only thing that causes anything else is an infection,

cheers,

KIR

hi, my stouts are the reverse of yours in that the foam is coloured , probably due to the roast grains. however i have noticed in pubs the dark beers have a white head.

so, how do we achieve a white head on a homebrew stout.?

cheers, alan

 

[phonos]

I must admit, I'd like to know this too. My understanding was that using nitrogen to "carbonate" your beer was the way to make it creamy and white (ala guiness) but I'd be very interested to hear how KIR manages it with kit recipes. I'm certain that infections have nothing to do with it.

I shouldn't have posted that stout pic earlier - It's making me want one for breakfast...

 

[albrews]

I must admit, I'd like to know this too. My understanding was that using nitrogen to "carbonate" your beer was the way to make it creamy and white (ala guiness) but I'd be very interested to hear how KIR manages it with kit recipes. I'm certain that infections have nothing to do with it.

I shouldn't have posted that stout pic earlier - It's making me want one for breakfast...

hi,

my stouts with a coloured head have not been infected, and roasted grains are important for flavour.


cheers, alan

 

[Adamt]

Black coloured beer is anywhere from 30 degrees Lovibond and up. It is definite some black beers (probably 30-45L) have white heads, and others (probably 50L and up, which is definitely not uncommon in heavier stouts) have off-white to tan heads.

This bit about only infected stouts having off-white heads is just plain silly.

 

[brettprevans]

my stouts have tan to off white heads. no articfical colours etc in mine. no infections either! even guinness is off white

 

[alexbrand]

I have no idea why, but sometimes my stout's heads are bright white and sometimes brownish. I do allways the same AG reciepe (okay, that's what I try do do).

What I know is, that they are not infected. They taste always very similar.

Alex

 

[Tony M]

I posted this early in the year.


"Haven't a clue wot those guys were on about but I came across some bubble stuff a couple of months ago that relates to the colour of bubbles.
The question was asked why bubbles in coloured liquids appear white. The answer was that the bubble of course is essentially a clear gas encapsulated in a liquid film drawn so thin that it too becomes transparent to the extent that the colour of the dye is not apparent.
Where is all this leading? To the hoary old question that pops up occasionally in this place----"Why is the head on a Guinness white and very dark on my home brew stout". The answer must be the pigment loading. I've mucked about with dyes and pigments a bit in my time and if you want to make a clear liquid black, a few drops will do it as well as a bucketload, its just that the colour appears "thinner" and if you spread the dyed liquid out, it becomes transparent. Therefore it must be concluded that the Dublin brewer must use just enough dark grains to make the beer black without affecting the head whereas, we tend to load up our brews with every black bit of stuff we can find. That may explain why Guinness now seems a little lacking in body since my palate has been conditioned to the likes of Vlads Stoutski."

 

[dr K]

Simple really
The Guinness you get on draft is pushed through with a fair whack of Nitrogen in the mix, Nitrogen is a fairly inert gas that makes up most of the air that we breath and makes the guinness that we drink get a white head. In very simple terms Nitogen bubbles are a lot smaller than CO2 bubbles and as a result the diffracted light from a glass of guinness gives the head an appearnce of being a whiter shade of ale foam. Viewed in a totally dark room Coopers and Guinness heads would appear to be the same colour.

K

 

[phonos]

Viewed in a totally dark room Coopers and Guinness heads would appear to be the same colour.

K

They would both appear black - like the rest of the room!

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

I think Tony M is on to something - Guinness seems to have gotten thinner and thinner of late (and generally lacking flavour). Is this to make it look prettier at the expense of taste? Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[dr K]

Well...someone got it !!
But..making a dark beer thinner or less roasty is not going to affect the head colour.
A pale Pils pours with a lovely white head, a reddish bitter does as well, a green green sea has white foam atop the breakers, a blue blue sky turns a menacing red as the sun sets, its all about light...of course if we had a flat earth we may not get a red sunset.

K

 

[mike_hillyer]

Cheers for the serious responses and yes I did tell a fib, but sorry I wanted to evoke some emotion. The secret to a natural white head on a dark body, for me has been some wheat malts. While to some the body isn't pitch black, it is very dark. I gleaned this from Dave Line's books, who tried to write from the point of view of breweing is a piece of piss. I do believe an "anal" approach to sterilising is required also, by this I mean every bottle and the brewing device is sterilised then filled with boiling hot water. Saying this I have knocked up stouts with darker heads which are not undrinkable but the head doesn't last as long.

Cheers again for responses and just wanted to share my experience over the last 8 years.

Regards,

KIR.