A two part question: How does oil inhibit formation of head in beer? Homebrewers take as gospel that oil-containing ingredients such as nuts will negatively impact head. But I can't find any articles or other materials explaining how and why this is true. I am trying to understand the chemistry of how this works. Do citrus oils (from citrus zest or orange peel) inhibit head formation? Randy Mosher says that in his experience citrus oils do not affect head.
I am going have a re-brew of an oatmeal porter recipe that came out really well. The only downside (for me) was that it effectively had zero head. How can I increase head retention but still get the smooth mouthfeel from the oats ?
I know perhaps the best malt for head retention is carafoam. However I was wondering how other malts known for this property compare to each other. Specially caramunich vs crystal malts. As I want to substitute a crystal 60L for a caramunich III in a red ale recipe, but I aim to keep the same head retention.
I had some bad luck the other day and half way through my boil a small but significant amount of water fell in my brew from my extractor fan. I haven't given the extractor a good clean in a while and since I was in the boil stage I am not concerned about contamination, I am aware however there is probably a significant amount of grease up there that could have mixed with the water before dripping back into the …
I have a rather concrete issue for those of you well versed in the chemical sciences: The situation I know for a fact that most of the bottles I am using have been contaminated on the inside with vegetable oil during label removal. In retrospect, my situation could have been easily prevented, but in the mean time I do have hundreds of sub-optimal bottles that I badly want to use. I want to dissolve and remove the fat to make …
Will maltodextrin and dry hopping post fermentation help a no head/thin beer? The beer has been on 8lbs of CO2 at 34F for over a month (should be around 2 volumes). (I'm guessing it was my experiment with store bought rolled oats versus flaked oats from the brew shop.) The beer tastes good (I don't detect any off flavors) it's just very thin and has about as much head as a glass of water. I clear all of my kegs …
Which ingredients used in the making of beer lead to a head that is retained, as compared to other carbonated alcoholic drinks (cider, champagne) which generally have zero head? I'm interesting in adding a nice head to some non-beer drinks and am wondering what I might use to do this, which wouldn't add an overly strong beery flavour.
I am going to be brewing the Zymurgy KBS clone, but a little nervous with some of the additions listed: 2.5 oz Belg Bittersweet Choc and 1.5 oz unsweetened cocoa nibs @ 15 mins. ***I read that adding straight chocolate to the boil will kill the head retention due to the oils. Can I cold crash the primary and skim the oil layer before racking into the second? adding 2 oz of GROUND Sumatran coffee @ Flameout. Will this be …
On my last homebrew when I transferred my beer to a bucket for bottling I noticed that the top had an oily shimmer to it. When I tried the beer a few weeks later the beer came out with pretty weak head and not enough bubbly. How do I remove that oily shimmer before bottling next time? Did it cause my problems, or was that something else.
Does the head improve something on the beer flavour/aroma? Back home in Brasil, the folk has it that head is useful to keep the beer cold, but in colder lands (and warmer beers) as they have in Europe that is probably a non-issue. In fact, some fast drinkers over there would argue for smaller head to get more beer. Why head and head retention are important?
I brewed an oatmeal stout and bottled it about 2 months ago. Most of the batch was drank within a few weeks of bottling. Tonight I opened the last bottle. This pour had significantly better head retention then the rest of them. Does head retention improve with age? I know the typical factors are clean glassware, no mustache wax, etc. But all things seem equal, except it sat for a good month longer than the rest.
I've read that certain proteins denatured during the wort boil is responsible for causing great, delicious foam. I don't get me no foam. I'm also doing partial boils using extract. So my question is twofold: I could boil 10 liters (out of 25) with the hops for ~60 minutes, and then boil an additional 10 liters of malt/water for a shorter time. How long would that shorter time have to be to denature the protein? 5 minutes? 10? 60? Also, …
I just finished brewing a series of 5 Belgian beers, and at least 3 of them have exhibited problems with head formation and retention. I haven't tried the last 2 beers yet, so I can't say if those have the same problems. In the Blonde, Dubbel and Tripel, I'll get a rush of carbonation after pouring and then a thin head that dissipates quickly. And I'm getting little to no lacing. All of these beers used Belgian Pils as the …