Just made my first lager.
I decided to aerate after cooling to pitching temp by whipping the crap out of it. Foam out the sides of the bucket. The kind of foam I would like to see in my glass. I couldn’t even make it collapse by stirring it into the wort.
Does that form of aeration waste valuable head forming compounds?
Is a de-gassing whip the same thing as the mix-stir?
Yeah, it is dean.
Theoretically, the MixStir action could “use up” foam positive proteins. However, after using a MixStir for years, I have seen no evidence that’s actually happening. I suppose it’s possible that my beers have so much foam potential that losing a little doesn’t matter, but at any rate I haven’t had anything make me believe it’s causing me problems.
Well, it does the same thing but the design is different. The degassing whip is just a hook shaped thing where the mixter has the two blades the swing out.
I use the whip just because I already have one.
I agree with Denny (big surprise there). I’ve been using the mix-stir to aerate for my 3 years of brewing. The owner of my local shop also uses one and has won many awards. I do not think this is a source of any head retention problems you may have.
Have you had any problems or are you just wondering if you may have problems?
I am just wondering. Usually I have been aerating with O2 and a stone.
I’ve never had great head retention but I think it’s mainly because I have cheap glassware that isn’t designated for beer consumption.
I find glassware often has less to do with it than you’d guess. If you’re having “foam issues”, take a gander at this…
http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/35-head-retention/697-getting-good-beer-foam-techniques
Thanks Denny. I’ll give it a read.
I’ve wondered about this myself. There may be some conditions under which the mix stir could cause head problems: low hop, low protein beer that is mix-stirred and force carbonated with shaking? I don’t know what the limit is, but it seems that the mix stir itself isn’t going to give you problems on a regular beer, i.e. there seems to be enough protein to go around.
I have had problems with head retention even without using the mix-stir. The yeast was healthy, water chemistry good, temp controlled, etc., but still would get a very low-foam beer on almost any style that was not hoppy. I noticed if these beers were cold conditioned (bottles in the fridge for >4 weeks) that the head formation and retention got a lot better. Note: this was never a problem with hoppy American style beers, those alpha acids do wonders for foam formation and retention. I can’t make any conclusions from this anecdotal evidence, but it may be something to try if you’re having head retention problems.
The effect of foaming during the brewing process and its effect on head retention can be tested in a fairly simple post fermentation experiment.
Needed: 2 carbonated bottles of the same beer, 2l soda bottle, funnel, carbonator cap and CO2
pour one bottle though the funnel into the empty soda bottle. Make sure it foams a lot but not out of the bottle.
squeeze out any air and attach carbonator cap.
add some CO2 and let foam settle
shake up violently to re-carbonate the beer. Multiple iterations of decarbonating and carbonating are possible to increase the amount of foaming that the beer went through.
finally carbonate the beer back to its initial carbonation level and let the foam settle
take 2 tall glasses, I use Koelsch glasses for that, and with a pour down the center raise a tall foamy head all the way to the rim
do this for both beers and compare how long it takes until you can see the beer surface.
If there is a big difference there might be something to this but if the times are about the same we should not worry too much.
I perform this head stability test when I evaluate my beers. Usually it takes about 6-7 min for the head to fall back.
Kai