Head Retention

ChrisA

Hi HBO.

Im about to start a Better Brew Irish Stout and will be supplementing it with 500g of Muntons extra dark spray malt and 1kg of brew enhancer. It will also be a reduced brew of 20 litres.

My question is how do I ensure good head retention?

I have made seven beer kits in the past and they all have a common theme…nicely carbonated and great tasting but the head disappears very quickly after the initial pour.

What am I doing wrong?

I read somewhere that it could be due to steriliser still being present in the bottles or FV.  When sterilising my equipment I do tend to use a lot (6 or 7 tea spoons of VWP) in a full fermenting vessel and then submerge my bottles for around 10mins. I will then empty the sterilised hot water back into the FV and rinse each bottle five times with cold water from the tap. Is there a chance there is still some left behind and this is the cause? If not do you have any other suggestions I could try?

Thanks Chris

HBO_Staff

Hi Chris, residue from steriliser can cause this problem, the key is to rinse them well, and don't go too mad with the VWP as it is very effective so use the dosage recommended, it will also save you money! Once everything is well rinsed in clean water you can then rule that out. One of the best ways to improve the head and body of the brew is like you are doing, use a brew enhancer as this is one of the benefits that has, the spraymalt will also do a similar thing. By reducing the volume this may have an effect, but just be aware more sugars (in the form of spraymalt in this case) and less volume of liquid will increase the alcohol strength of the stout. If you have any spare try priming the 500ml bottles with a heaped teaspoon of spraymalt or enhancer for the secondary fermentation. 

You may also find that the longer you leave it in the bottles it may help to improve it further. All these things together should make an improvement. The one other thing to bear in mind is that sometimes the more expensive premium kits can produce better results. They are more to begin with, but you don't need to add any enhancer/sugar (apart from priming the bottles) and contain around 3kgs of malt extract which give the brew more body;

http://www.home-brew-online.com/beer-kits-c1/muntons-c2/gold-imperial-stout-kit-p117

Here we have made the 1 tin kit Brewmaker Irish Velvet with a kg of enhancer and that turned out very well if you haven't tried that one;

http://www.home-brew-online.com/beer-kits-c1/brewmaker-c20/irish-velvet-stout-beer-kit-p225