What's Head Got To Do With It ?

[mwd]

I often wonder why drinkers prefer a beer with head as to one with none. Any ideas.? Most Irish stouts are designed and gassed to keep a head from top to bottom.

Does the foam sensation on the top lip have anything to do with it.?

I don't know but a beer with head is much more pleasing to the eye, as are the rings down the glass with a good draught Guinness.

Try it and see what you come up with. :drinks:

O.T.: There should be a law against drinking straight out of the bottle :icon_cheers:

No Irish jokes about the white head is there to tell Paddy which way is up. :kooi:

 

[bum]

Would there be any truth to the rumour that you've been researching the matter quite heavily this evening, TB?

 

[MHB]

This one always puzzled me to, so after a bit of digging I was surprised to find that it's ancient I mean thousands of years old. Go back to a time when beer was safe to drink and the water wasn't, a good foamy head proved the beer was live and you would stay that way to.

Guess some traditions get pretty deeply ingrained in the culture.

MHB

 

[bum]

Oh. Since we're taking this seriously - it is said that head releases aroma thus increasing our appreciation of the beer.

Can't say I've had much trouble smelling most beers that are light on the foamy stuff, however.

 

[Bribie G]

Heads seem to come and go. Traditionally in the South of England, especially London, beers were served with no head at all - I recall drinking Courage Directors Bitter, Abbott Ale etc with tops as still as a millpond.

When I arrived in QLD in the late 70s draught beer was served with no head, the standard drink was a 7oz glass full to the top. there were only two beers anyway Carlton and XXXX . Beers with a head were considered a NSW abomination and it was common for Queenslanders who wound up in NSW pubs looking at their foaming schooners and saying "jeez love, why not put a tie on it as well" (referring to 'collar')

 

[jakub76]

In the Oz and James series they met the Guinness head brewer who suggested not to drink the head on a guinness. He reckons only imbibe the liquid not the froth as it hold too much bitterness and such.

EDIT: PS - I like to pour my own beers to have 1-2cm of head. Perhaps I just like the look of it but that's part of the sensory perception. I also like to see how long it lasts. I particularly like the lacing that sticks to a glass of full bodied beer, lacing from my rice lager pretty much needs to be scrubbed off the side of the glass morning after.

 

[bum]

Here I was not drinking the beer all this time. Someone thank that man for me!

 

[Hazy]

Try drinking through the head, ie, guinness is drunk through the head (froth) . This acts like a filter allowing the true flavours to be tasted. Dont tilt the galss to much, just sip through the head. An Irish mate from dublin pointed this out to me and its the only way to go. Try and leave some head till the last drop

 

[mwd]

Heads seem to come and go. Traditionally in the South of England, especially London, beers were served with no head at all - I recall drinking Courage Directors Bitter, Abbott Ale etc with tops as still as a millpond.

Quite right I had forgot about that. In the North they had oversize glasses to allow for the head with a little white line marking for the pint. So you took a huge gulp and told the barman to top it up :lol:
And the boys from Weights and Measures would check metered beer pumps when they checked the petrol pumps at the local service station.

 

[Nick JD]

I think a head on a beer is indicitive of body, dextrins and hop oils in the beer. Body is indicitive of higher mash temps (less alcohol per kg grist), less adjuncts, more expensive spec grains, more hops used later in the boil ... and generally a better product designed with taste as the priority, profit secondary.

 

[Pennywise]

I was under the impression that head also helped reduce oxidation, anyone know if there's some truth in that?

 

[np1962]

Try drinking through the head, ie, guinness is drunk through the head (froth) . This acts like a filter allowing the true flavours to be tasted. Dont tilt the galss to much, just sip through the head. An Irish mate from dublin pointed this out to me and its the only way to go. Try and leave some head till the last drop

+1 This is how Guinness reccommend drinking their product.
I ran a pub in Crumlin NI and the brewery actually sent someone out to teach the staff how to pour a pint properly. They then went on to show us how to drink those pints. :icon_drool2: Proper Irish Guinness!

Cheers
Nige

 

[Shed101]

Heads seem to come and go. Traditionally in the South of England, especially London, beers were served with no head at all - I recall drinking Courage Directors Bitter, Abbott Ale etc with tops as still as a millpond.

Most northern beers would come with no head if they weren't forced through sparklers - little showerhead like devices. They started becoming fashionable in the south, particularly London, too.

The Wetherspoons pubs resurrected an old CAMRA campaign to have full measures served using glasses with a pint line, the head to be served above that line. They started using only these oversized pint glasses, but I believe they backed out of it - it was costing them too much to serve full pints!!!

I quite often used to insist on a full pint - especially when I was a stoodent
When I was in a particularly pedantic mood (or had too much beer to know better) i'd ask the barman to remove a sparkler if I was in the south

I guess a head on a beer just looks nicer. Most people aren't that bothered about aroma ... or even taste. As long as the pump clip shows the right image and the beer doesn't taste of vinegar, brand wins out.

EDIT: But it pisses me right off when people serve a 3 inch head on a pint. Dickheads.

 

[Noxious]

I was under the impression that head also helped reduce oxidation, anyone know if there's some truth in that?

Oxidation from the time you pour it till the time you drink it?
Must have very sensitive palate, unless the beer is supposed to last a year or two in the glass?!?

 

[Shed101]

I was under the impression that head also helped reduce oxidation, anyone know if there's some truth in that?

I've read it increases sweetness by reducing acidity in the beer 'cos it's in the head instead ... :unsure:

 

[Pennywise]

Wouldn't have a clue about any science behind it, was just something I'm pretty sure I read.

 

[mwd]

Just cracked a bottle of LCPA not poured very carefully got about 20mm of foam on top.
The foam actually tastes better than the beer. Go figure.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I reckon its a combination of what MHB and NickJD suggested.

in ancient beer, and in traditional african beers - they were often served while still fermenting. A frothy beer was an indication that the beer was fresh, alive, safe and had in fact fermented and was likely to contain booze. A carbonation head isn't quite the same thing... but thousands of years of wanting to see foam on the top of a beer to prove its quality just ingrained the concept into the minds of beer drinkers.

which leads into Nicks point... less about the details than about the result. In the modern beverage - well made, pure fresh, hopped beer tends to form a stable head of foam. Also in environments where reasonably high cabonation is the norm, it lets you know that your beer isn't flat. Its a simple visual indicator of quality.

not to mention that it looks pretty and that's important.

PS - It is also true that alpha acids are disproportionately high in beer foam (they are hydrophobic and also bond with the hydrophobic polypeptides that form the surface of the bubbles), and that the fact that they are there means they aren't in the beer - so that makes the foam taste extra bitter and could in some cases make the beer seem sweeter by lowering the effective bitterness of the liquid portion.

 

[mje1980]

I think a head on a beer is indicitive of body, dextrins and hop oils in the beer. Body is indicitive of higher mash temps (less alcohol per kg grist), less adjuncts, more expensive spec grains, more hops used later in the boil ... and generally a better product designed with taste as the priority, profit secondary.

Bit of a general statement here!?. My rice/polenta lagers dont have a huge head, but they do have a head, and lace all the way down.