Head retention

[retourrbx]

Just a quick question... do you think it would be better to use torrified wheat or normal wheat malt?

Cheers

[Jim]

Either of those will aid head retention, but torrified wheat has the advantage that it helps the sparge by creating a bit of porosity in the grain bed.

[retourrbx]

Excellent, thanks, I don't mind a slight decrease in efficiency, I'll have a go with the wheat I think...

Does anyone buy hops from H&G? I'm hoping to get some cascade and wondered what form they took - pellets or compressed, it's not too clear on the site

[RabMaxwell]

As we are talking about head retention i used to use PGA powder as i like a nice creamy lasting head. A couple of years back i switched to using beer engines with a sparkler on the end the only exception is when i make the occasional stout then i use 70/30 sure mix. At the same time i stopped using PGA powder & to my surprise my beers have still got excellent head retention. The surprise was that my beers have better head retention now when serving relatively flat through my beer engines. The only other thing that i can think of that i changed at the same time was the way i clean my beer glasses. I give my beer glass a quick spray with water & beer line cleaner mix followed by a good rinse with cool water before pouring my ale. If you can't get beer line cleaner soda crystal water mix in a spray bottle works just as good.

(Perfection without additives)