Very little head??

JoeKopite

I have just finished my first batch of lager,waited as stated for a few weeks, and when I came to drinking it, although it was nice the only negative point I would say is it had no head and just looked flat??
I was wondering what I have done wrong and is there a way of rectifying this??

HBO_Staff

There can be a few reasons for this, which lager is it you've made, and what did you use to make it - sugar/enhancer etc, and what was it primed with? It would also be useful to know if it was bottled or kegged too....

JoeKopite

I used the coopers larger beer kit, 1kg brewing sugar and bottled it using coopers carbonation drops.

HBO_Staff

The Coopers lager is very popular, if using 500ml bottles then priming with 2 x carbonation drops rather than one would usually give it increased carbonation, often in the early stages it is slow to prime, so leaving it for a good few weeks definately improves it, as with most lagers/beers. Ensuring it is warm for the first few days to get it started and then moving somewhere cooler to store gets the best results. It's also important to make sure the bottles are well rinsed of any steriliser as any residue can affect the head, so rinsing well in clean water after sterilising is recommended. We experiment with the amount of sugar it is primed with, and sometimes use enhancer to prime the brews, to try and get it to suit our preferences, as there is no fixed rule, and sometimes add more to get it fizzier, but leaving it longer nearly always improves it. A word of caution though, if adding more priming sugar in any form, store somewhere safe just in case you over do it and the pressure builds up too high in the bottles.

Certain vesions such as the European can take much longer to carbonate and condition, and need a minimum of 12 weeks, but the manufacturers state this on the instructions when needed.