I have brewed a lot of lower-gravity beers the past year, mostly bitters or C-hoppy session beers, and I usually use either domestic pale ale malt or plain North American 2-row (often with a pinch of special roast to make it taste more “British”). Usually when I brew a really low-gravity ale and I carbonate it on the low end to make it more “British,” I find that beer doesn’t have the best head. Well, I decided to brew my first Scottish 70/- ale with 100% British malt, just because it is a small beer without a lot of hops, and so I felt like the malt would be extra important. I noticed that the head on this beer is the best of any I have brewe for quite some time. I looked back at my brew history and realized that most (though not all) of my most creamy-headed beers were made with European base malts. Is this just coincidental, or is there more to this?
European chicks do, I can tell you that.
Sorry, that was terrible but I couldn’t resist.
Anyway… Do you have lot analyses? Some (though by no mean all) continental malts are less modified than their NA counterparts, and a higher protein content could certainly result in better head retention.
With a different base malt, it could also be that you hit a better mash pH, which has been implicated in head retention as well.