No head

[beerdoctor]

Hello all,
I'm curious as to why my 2nd AG has absolutely no head whatsoever!
My 1st attempt was as per Dave Line's "Match" beer and contained flaked barley which I think can help with head production- what a corking beer, nice firm head with longevity, stored in King Keg.
2nd attempt as per Jim's website recipe but I added gypsum and epsom salts after reading Dave Line's book and stored in PTFE bottles. Primed with brewing brewing sugar. It's a great beer and has plenty of fizz but not a whisper of a head . Could it be the salts as above which have caused the head problem or the bottles?
Regards
Mark.

[stevezx7r]

It could be (the salts etc). I think the flaked barley gives head retention whereas TW promotes head production. Try a mix of both, I have in my latest AG so i'll let you know how it turns out.

[mysterio]

Could be the pressure they're served at. My beers have no problem forming a head if served under a few pounds of CO2 or forced through a beer engine.

[booldawg]

The same happened to me; AG#1 had a lovely head and AG#2 had no head at all - even though it contained TW.

I would suggest maybe it was down to washing the bottles in Fairy Liquid before I knew that was a bad thing, but both brews use the same batch of bottles.

[beerdoctor]

Thanks for the replies. I think next brew will go into the keg again without epsom and gypsom salts.

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Sorry if i'm off topic!!

On about water? The water where I live at Wombwell is crap, I do believe it's from bore holes with a very high p.h.
I get a TCP smell next day if water is left overnight in a glass after a session on the ale.
I had loads of bad mashes with the conversion of fermentable sugars, then 2 days after yeast was pitched the wort would look dead with hardly any signs of life, as anybody else noticed the wort looking "dead" or is it just me?
The lighter the beer colour the more failures, the only brews I could do was with 2lb of crushed crystal in with the crushed malt.
I Tried boiling with citric acid, water salts, gypsum, epson salts, you name it I tried it. (made me jack in 10yrs ago)
When I brew now I source the water from work, I think it is on Sheffield supply from the pennines, I don't add anything to the mash liquor and the beers have been great (light & dark).
The best advice I could give to anybody about brewing is check your water, get a p.h tester, try different supplies near to home, I'm only 7 miles from work but a totally different supply!

John

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Here's the analysis if you are interested

Sodium 5 Potassium 0.9 Magnesium 1.7 Calcium 23 HCO3 32 Chloride 8 Sulphate 32[/quote]

Hi,
I don't understand the mineral additives, are the numbers in grams?

John

[beerdoctor]

Update:-
It's amazing what a couple more weeks can do for a beer. When pouring it from the bottles now it produces a great head! It doesn't last long however! One thing I've noticed though is that the gaseous release seems to have a higher density/smaller bubbles on the palate - presumably due to the extra time the beer has had to absorb the CO2, this would fit with Mysterio's comment regarding head formation when dispensed with pressure.
Lesson 1 - don't be so impatient, conditioning of beer is exactly that ( the beer also tastes a lot better!)

[BarnsleyBrewer]

The difference between an average beer and a good beer is often just time.

I agree on the bubbles thing, I used to think that force carbonating or priming with sugar caused larger bubbles but give it a week or two and they all end up the same with a greater number of finer more densely packed bubbles.

Do you recommend priming a bottle with a bit of sugar or non at all?

BB