Kegged Pale Ales & More Head?

Brewing Processes
1

Looking for some insight into why kegged pale ales have more head than ales
with the same carbonation? I always have a pale ale on my 3 tap frig and end
up with a 1/3 glass of foam, using 10.5 psi and 7 feet of 3/16 bev tubing. All my
other ales pour fine with no change in the system. I have tried tweaking every
aspect of my tap system; is it just the nature of the beast?

2

if this is only with your pale ales, seems you’ve got two options…

adjust your recipe or brewing techniques on the pale ales to reduce the amount of head (ie cut back on cara grains & other head enhancing grain in your recipe, etc) or on the serving side, put a longer length of hose on your pale ales.

3

Are you always putting it on the same tap? Switch them around and see.

4

I’ve concluded that it’s either something with the hops or the crystal malts added. I’ve found that bottled beers have the same experience. I’ve read / seen nothing about the hops aiding in carbonation, but this cant be a coincendence. Or the crystal is fattening up the body. More crystal tends to get added to hoppy beers to balance them a little.

5

monomer77, I’m going to look into that. This is the most recent 6 gl variation:
Grist
95.5 10lb Pale Malt   America 1.036  2
4.8  8oz Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
Hops
7g Magnum  Whole 11.20  8.7 60 min
28g Cascade Whole  5.75 11.1 21 min
28g Citra  Whole 11.40  9.5  7 min
14g Cascade Whole  5.75  0.0  0 min
14g Citra  Whole 11.40  0.0  0 min

Excessive head is only a problem with the pale ales and it does not matter
which tap it’s on. I have talked to other brewers, who also have noticed this.
Hmmm

6

The volume of CO2, mash temp, grain bill (crystal, dextrinous producing malts) and bad fermentations can all effect beer head. It’s usually the “lack of” that homebrewers are more concerned with but in your case I would consider the aforementioned and check out this link.

http://www.byo.com/stories/techniques/a … techniques

7

I haven’t seen your other recipes, but hops aid head retention.  If this beer is more highly hopped than the other beers you have on tap, that would explain it.

8

+1 on the hops adding to head retention.  (I have read it in quite a few articles lately)

However, I suspect the Pale Ale is Dry Hopped, while the others are not.  My guess is that there are more micro hop particles floating around than the other beers, giving nucleation sites for the foam to start.  You could filter/fine more to reduce the head problem if this is the case, but it will also effect the flavor of the Pale Ale as some of those particles is what gives you the bright hop flavor.

I would try a different hose length and/or dialing the PSI down when serving as a start…

Good luck!

9

I’m going to look into the hop “influence”. I have one regulator supplying five kegs
and one regulator for fruit, wheat and carbed water. I just do not want to incorporate
another regulator for the pale ales. Thanks everyone.