Three-finger head but tastes flat?

I recently brewed a Belgian Wit extract kit. Bottle conditioned with 5 oz of priming sugar. I'm pretty happy with the taste. With a medium speed pour into a Pilsner glass, the beer develops a rather thick, probably three fingers tall head. It slowly fades but a small head remains throughout. Good lacing continues as well. I can see a lot of continuous streams from random nucleation sites in the glass. It looks beautiful IMHO.

The problem is that it doesn't taste very carbonated. Some go as far to say that it tastes flat.

Any ideas why it develops a great head but still tastes flat? Thanks!

Topic belgian-white carbonation beer homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

I'm seeing the exact same situation with a Belgium Ale. Granted, very early in the bottle conditioning it was like a soda, fizz, then nothing in a matter of seconds, flat, flat beer. It got better with time, a little bit of a head, but pretty much flat, now about three weeks out, a decent head and better carbonation, so, I'm holding out hope with more time. They don't package patience with beer kits!

1
answered at

You could just be under-carbonated. Wit beer, when done properly, has a gorgeous, thick head from all that protein in the wheat, regardless of how carbonated the bottles are. How long has the beer been bottled? Maybe give it another week or two, and make sure you pour it slowly. Did the beer dry out properly? A wit should be lower than 1.014 or so, I think. Under attenuation could result in a sweeter(sorta) beer, which might be perceived as less "sharp" or carbonated.

1
answered at

Try a cleaner glass. Sounds like most of the carbonation is coming out of solution during the pour. Give your glass a rinse with super hot water. A quick rinse with cool water to cool the glass off (hot glass will not help with carbonation), but don't worry about chilling the glass much. Don't bother drying the glass. Then pour your beer.

Super clean glassware is vital.

At least that's my guess.

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