Creamy Head?

[St. Ailbhe's Brewery]

Going to brew a Cooper's Irish stout soon and wanted to know how I can get a really creamy head - Guinness style - from a bottle.

Now, I know I won't get the real thing but as close as I can, more cream than bubble anyway.

How do I go about it best? Would the addition of malt extract make a difference? Or should I steep some malt? If so, what kind, and how?

Thanks lads....


P.S. - for others beers aswell, ales and pale ales, would love to know how to "cream-ify" the heads from the bottle, as far as is possible.

[pumblechook]

Wheat extract as part of the fermentables added to the kit will help with head retention, but to get a proper head like you get with Guinness I think you need a cornelius keg with pub gas. When I last looked into it myself I think it was recommended that the gas mix should have nitrogen in it for stouts.

With bottles there isn't much more you can do.

Good luck!

[St. Ailbhe's Brewery]

Wheat extract as part of the fermentables added to the kit will help with head retention, but to get a proper head like you get with Guinness I think you need a cornelius keg with pub gas. When I last looked into it myself I think it was recommended that the gas mix should have nitrogen in it for stouts.

With bottles there isn't much more you can do.

Good luck!

Thanks PB.

Forgive me but wheat extract is an aline term to me.

How can I buy it? (In grain? Jars? Pots?)

How do I use it?


Bottle is my only option here, so that rules out the gas thing.

[Monkeybrew]

Muntons make wheat spraymalt aka DME.

MB

[Paddy Bubbles]

Going to brew a Cooper's Irish stout soon and wanted to know how I can get a really creamy head - Guinness style - from a bottle.

Now, I know I won't get the real thing but as close as I can, more cream than bubble anyway.

How do I go about it best? Would the addition of malt extract make a difference? Or should I steep some malt? If so, what kind, and how?

P.S. - for others beers aswell, ales and pale ales, would love to know how to "cream-ify" the heads from the bottle, as far as is possible.

The short answer is, you can't.. Draught Guinness has a creamy head because of the method of dispense used. It's dispensed with a mixture of nitrogen and cardon dioxide; the nitrogen bubbles are much smaller than CO2 and can't escape the liquid as easily. And so it forms the thick creamy head you see in the pint.

Wheat malt extract might help with your head retention but I don't think it's going to give you the result you're after.

As for steeping grains; the traditional grains used for head formation and retention like wheat malt, torrified wheat and CaraPils require a mash. (Technically you can steep CaraPils, but I've heard from several sources that it's better to mash)

The best thing you can do is make sure your cleaning and sanitation process is perfect. Residual oils etc. have a big effect on head stability.

[St. Ailbhe's Brewery]

Thanks.

How do I "mash"?

[TC2642]

Thanks.

How do I "mash"?

That would require a leap into AG brewing, where you add malt to water, there is plenty on the technical aspects around here but it does require more time, effort and equipment than a kit.

[Geezah]

You could boil up 100g of porridge oats in a couple of litres of water for 20 minutes and add just the residual water to your kit, this would crudely add extra wheat extract to the brew and will help with a better head, but as others have already pointed out, to get a full creamy head you need to serve from a keg with gas.

[lee1]

hi dont mean to hijack this link but just got mi self a nitreogen regulator im getting the gas tomorrow have been using co2 but it just doent give the beer the finishing touch hope this will give me the creamy finish

[St. Ailbhe's Brewery]

Thank you gentlemen. I'll give some of the malts a try and see how I go. Ye're sound men!

[orlando]

The Dark Side beckons!

[LeeH]

hi dont mean to hijack this link but just got mi self a nitreogen regulator im getting the gas tomorrow have been using co2 but it just doent give the beer the finishing touch hope this will give me the creamy finish

Remember you will need the correct tap as well.

[St. Ailbhe's Brewery]

The Dark Side beckons!

[seymour]

Guinness gets the creaminess, full-body, and head retention from 10% flaked barley much more so than the nitrogen carbonation. Simply steep a bag of unmalted grain (flaked barley, torrified wheat, or oats) in your hot dissolved extract for awhile to simulate.

[zgoda]

Hmmm, isn't that any starch requires enzymes to be broken into maltose? You'd not get any in malt extract.