Dark beer Head

[barney]

Hello,

How can I choose the colour of the head that forms on the beer? If I want a bright white creamy what head what should I put in? Same with a brown head.

what makes the head white or dark? creamy or frothy?

Thanks

[trucker5774]

My understanding is that the head is made from the bubbles, therefore the stretched "membranes" of beer which hold the CO2 will be related roughly to the colour of the beer. Some heads on a dark beer will look white by contrast until you stand it next to a lager head.

Head consistency is just bubble size. A loosely poured beer will give a lacy head and a beer forced through tiny holes like a sparkler (or syringe) will give a tighter creamier head. ......................well that's what I reckon, anyway, so it must be true coz Ive got over 3000 posts

[idbrew]

I thought I read that (unmalted) roasted barley gives a lighter head than roasted malts because of the absence of certain substances (sugars?) that develop during malting.

Don't think about it too hard though

[barney]

that's what I was hoping for, Thanks guys.

[gregorach]

I believe there's a correlation between bubble size and head colour - smaller bubbles produce a lighter head. Now, getting those smaller bubbles... Sparkler taps and nitromix, I guess.

[gnorwebthgimi]

It's due to bubble size.

Guinness is delivered under nitrogen dissolved in the beer rather than carbon dioxide, I know this causes the cascading effect as it settles to be more prominent but I'm not sure if it also keeps the bubbles tighter or whether this is achieved by a sparkler.

To prove this simply take some honey in a small pot and stir it, the more you stir the honey the more air (and bubbles) will be incorporated, eventually it turns white as it is the bubbles surface that reflects a small amount of light. I saw that on bang goes the theory.