Looking for suggestions for what to use for head retention in lighter beers. What do people use and how much?
I’d say it is about great fermentation and carbonation. Healthy yeast begets nice head.
+1 - if your fermentation is generating fusels due to high fermentation or pitching temps or under pitching (not enough yeast) your head retention will suffer. There’s not much in the way of ingredients that will help that. Likewise, if your beer is not adequately carbonated your head retention will suffer.
When I started making sure I fermented below 70, my head retention improved significantly.
You can have great head retention with just base malt, if you have a good mash and fermentation.
If you want extra help, use some wheat in the beer, and lots of hops. Wheat proteins will aid the head, as will hop oils.
Lately (since November) I’ve been brewing session beers. My big beer is 1.050 lol. Most finish about 3.5-4% abv. Last fall I bought 3 pounds of carapils. I currently have 2.5 pounds left. I used it once, haven’t used it since.
I don’t need it because I don’t use adjuncts in small beers. (Not afraid of flavor I guess) My premium lager is 8 lbs pils 2 lbs Vienna. No head problems at all.
I was listening to a February 14 episode of BN Sunday Session with Dr Bamforth, who says he’s been wrong about caramel malts. He now knows that many caramel malts are foam negative. The lighter they are the more foam negative they are.
In my opinion good process all the way through is what gives you good foam. Poor process, or hight % of adjunct sugar, or high fusel or high abv will reduce foam.
Flaked barley as well. In fact, I use a little flaked barley in my belgian wheat because I was unhappy with the head retention (probably because of the oils present in the lime leaves used in recipe.)
+1 to flaked barley and wheat, but also to low fermentation temps, good pH, and pitching enough healthy yeast.
Flaked barley works great for head retention, but I just don’t like what it does for the flavor of a pale beer. It has a real “raw grain” flavor that , once you notice it, it tends to jump out at you. I’ve started using torrified wheat where I would normally consider using flaked barley, or even Carapils.
Flaked barley and wheat work great. So does rye although it will darken or “gray” the color a smidge. In darker beers, rye is king, IMHO.
Duvel is proof that you don’t need protein laden adjuncts and that sugar isn’t a negative in terms of beer foam. All that’s in Duvel is pils malt and sugar. It’s the correct brewing processes that give it foam that any homebrewer would die for.
Didn’t Drew say they used some type of hop extract in Duvel to help aid head retention?
+1
Also agree with healthy fermentation to keep fusels down. It comes down to good healthy brewing practices and approach. Experience is also a factor.
Maybe, but if so I’d guess it’s not the extract part that matters. The polyphenols in the hops will bind the proteins in the beer to help with foam. My guess (and it’s only that!) is that those polyphenols exist no matter what the form of the hops.