I always thought this was a recipe / yeast thing. I worked in Kent for a year in about 2000 and I remember Master Brew (and I think Spitfire?) doing this when bought from the local pubs.
Now it was a long time ago, at the start of my drinking career, and I didn't get to go to the pubs very often, so it could have been just one pub with bad cellarmanship. But whenever I've seen it on cask ale since then I've always thought that the head was just like that on Master Brew. So it must have happened fairly often.
Head "cracks" on hand pulled beer
Re: Head "cracks" on hand pulled beer
Never enough time...
Re: Head "cracks" on hand pulled beer
Yep, Wards Best Bitter suffered from a head retention problem where it turned to ‘cracked ice’. This was resolved later on when they changed to a different yeast.