Which is the best grain for head retention (and %)

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cheshirehomebrew

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Hi all, another question in which I can pick your brains.

I currently use Torrified Wheat for head retention and have had **** poor results from it. It usually makes up anywhere between 10 and 13% of my all grain beers.

The local HBS suggested I brew at a lower temperature and make sure the bottles are very well rinsed, as soap residue even in trace amounts can effect this.

Any alternatives or suggestions would be more than welcome, as I upped the percentage in my last brew to around 14 and brewed cooler, the result has been bottled and is still maturing so I wont know for 4ish weeks.

Thanks
 
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Paging @Gunge weve got a case with a severe lack of flaked barley

So, the advice of eliminating all soap residue from bottles and glass is good, for retaining any head that would have been there. A cooler fermentation temperature isn’t something I’ve ever heard but doesn’t mean they are wrong. But from a grain perspective, if you’re not happy with the results from torrified wheat definitely give flaked barley a go, 5% or so is what I tend to use.
 
Hi!
Very early in my home brewing experience I was advised to use no detergents (like washing-up liquid), so I always clean with Wizz Oxy, a sodium percarbonate based cleaner.
When I was brewing with kits I added maltodextrin to aid head retention; now I use flaked barley.
I also do a stepped mash - I read that there was some evidence that extending the 70°C rest aids head retention.
 
There is some useful info in this article HERE.

Good process is a key element, as malt and hops should be enough to give good head retention. My personal feeling is that a +10% addition of anything, purely for retaining head, is too much and will impact on the desired outcome of the recipe. And it is worth investigating other avenues for the solution. Correct mash pH, boil vigour and wort clarity are things to look at.
 
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Carapils helps with head retention. I think wheat is supposed to as well.
Carafoam and carapils are supposed to aid with head retention but tests show they don't. Wheat does. When I picked up a sack of grain from a microbrewery the first thing he told me was add a bit of wheat malt for head retention and they do it on all their beers.

http://youngscientistssymposium.org/YSS2016/pdf/Kultgen.pdf

Scroll down to page 4.
 
I’m veering towards “what works for me” territory here, rather than accepted best practice, but I’m becoming a believer in flaked something being a good way to improve head retention. I think that I’m right to say that more protein is in flaked grains versus malted, and it’s a certain protein which creates foam.

This one I used flaked rye as it was a rye beer, but I went high on the flaked element, 12.5%. This was 20 minutes or so after pouring and most of the way down the (metric) pint.
 

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I’m veering towards “what works for me” territory here, rather than accepted best practice, but I’m becoming a believer in flaked something being a good way to improve head retention. I think that I’m right to say that more protein is in flaked grains versus malted, and it’s a certain protein which creates foam.

This one I used flaked rye as it was a rye beer, but I went high on the flaked element, 12.5%. This was 20 minutes or so after pouring and most of the way down the (metric) pint.

Yeah, I tend to agree. Been using flaked barley a bit lately (from Holland and barret) and definitely think it aids head retention. I use about 5%.

I also got some flaked rye from h&b, but not used it yet. Apart from head retention does it bring anything else to the party?
 
Lots of hop also decreases head retention. Don't expect an American style IPA to have a brilliant head.

Edit: Sadfield is very much correct! Alpha acids increase head retention. However, dry hopping seems to decrease head retention.
 
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I'm ****** if I know. I've had recent brews with carapils and flaked barley. I've had an oatmeal stout with obviously plenty of oats plus a heap of flaked barley and still not great.

I think I may be having carbonation issues with PET bottles but that aside I should be getting better retention from certain beers and I'm not.

I think my glasses are maybe not clean enough/properly. I've bought a cloth for wiping them in hot water without detergent, then a good rinse with hot water and drip dry afterwards. Still no use though.

Edit- just double checked the oatmeal stout recipe and oats account for 6.7% and flaked barley 1.7% grist. So not actually that much combined.
 
I think I may be having carbonation issues with PET bottles but that aside I should be getting better retention from certain beers and I'm not.
I think my glasses are maybe not clean enough/properly. I've bought a cloth for wiping them in hot water without detergent, then a good rinse with hot water and drip dry afterwards. Still no use though.
I use PET bottles and never have any problems with loss of carbonation even if the beer has been in there for months.
If you have tiny bubbles stuck to the inside of the glass when you fill it with beer then your glass is dirty. I clean my glasses with clean detergent water, rinse and then dry with a dedicated glasses cloth. Never have any problem with dirty glasses.
 
I disagree. Quite the opposite.

http://beerandwinejournal.com/foam-3/

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Sorry! I should have been more specific. I was way off/specific.
You are a 100% correct, hops can increase the foam stability!

Unless you dry-hop:
https://hopsteiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016-06_TS_Foamstability.pdf

So basically:
Alpha-acids increase foam stability (i.e. bitterness) but dry hopping decreases it.

Again my apologies for making such convoluted statements.
 
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Sorry! I should have been more specific. I was way off/specific.
You are a 100% correct, hops can increase the foam stability!

Unless you dry-hop:
https://hopsteiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016-06_TS_Foamstability.pdf

So basically:
Alpha-acids increase foam stability (i.e. bitterness) but dry hopping decreases it.

Again my apologies for making such convoluted statements.
Apologies, Wouter. I missed that despite double checking. Thanks for the link.

It made me smile though. The foam in the dryhopped beer only lasted 307 seconds. A glass of a good IPA never lasts that long in my experience.

It does show how complicated the issue is, and that it is a balancing act where the negatives need consideration as much as the positives.


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Apologies, Wouter. I missed that despite double checking. Thanks for the link.

It made me smile though. The foam in the dryhopped beer only lasted 307 seconds. A glass of a good IPA never lasts that long in my experience.

It does show how complicated the issue is, and that it is a balancing act where the negatives need consideration as much as the positives.


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No you're completely right! Dry hopping is always named apart and I should have been more specific. I was mixing thing a bit up in my head while writing.

Yeah its really interesting. I also have trouble with head many times.

Alright guys, I did my best to compile a more specific list! Most of it is from this paper:
Shokribousjein, Z.; Deckers, S. M.; Gebruers, K.; Lorgouilloux, Y.; Baggerman, G.; Verachtert, H.; Delcour, J. A.; Etienne, P.; Rock, J.-M.; Michiels, C.; Derdelinckx, G. Cerevisia 2011, 35, 85–101.
I've added the paper as a file at the bottom of this post.

I did my best to take the most important points and either explain or remove things that are just too technical. There probably are many other things, but these are the points that the authors thought to be most important. And I added a few other things of more recent times.
If any thing is unclear feel free to ask and I'll try to see if I can explain it better.

Proteins:

Lipid transfer protein (LTP1) is a protein present in grains. The amount of it is dependent on the specific growing conditions.
This component is a positive influence on foam stability. It does this by enhancing the foam itself, but more importantly by binding fatty acids (which are negative influence).

Hordeins are also present in the grain and are a postive influence if they are present (they are insoluble unless treated with proteolyltic enzymes).

Protein Z has interaction with other proteins (such as LTP1) and in doing so enhances the foam stability.

Non-starch polysaccharides:
Arbinoxylan and -glucan or even oligosaccharides improve foam stability by increasing beer bulk viscosity, thus reducing the drainage of the liquid from foam

Hop acids: Iso--acids of added hops cross-link with protein, and improve foam stability. But if they are used in large amounts (hydrogenated iso--acids) predominantly tetra hopped beers (this is the stuff that large companies use to hop their beer, degrades less rapidly) will degrade to produce a foam that is like “whipped egg-white icebergs” and foam stability is lost. As these acids can produce bad taste “vulcanized rubber” in the final beer, only low addition of hydrogenated iso--acid hop is a useful tool in optimizing foam quality. A high proportion of isohumulone to coisohumulone (Our hop!) will result in more stable foams.

Dry Hopping: Interestingly, dry hopping seems to decrease foam stability. The reasons are not yet well researched: https://hopsteiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016-06_TS_Foamstability.pdf.

Cations:
Metal cations promote beer foam stability and gushing. Multivalent cations (i.e. cations with a charge more than one + or -) improve foam stability via reversible cross-linking with hop acids and proteins. I.e. you have hop acids and proteins floating around randomly, but the cations sort off pull them together making a network of these compounds (giving foam!)

Lipids: : Sources of lipids in beer are mostly malt but also hops and yeasts. By addition of lipids to beer, at first the foam destabilizes but after a rest for 24 h, its foam can be either fully or partially recovered. The reason for this reaction is the presence of lipid binding proteins in beer and the degree of recovery is related to the level of these proteins in beer, their state and the amount of lipid. There is no evidence that essential oils from hops have any impact on foam stability at the levels found even in the “hoppiest” products.

Ethanol (alcohol): The higher the percentage of alcohol the more likely it is for ethanol to disrupt the proteins forming the foam and thus has a negative influence on foam stability in higher alcohol beer.

pH (acidity): The pH of beer has an important impact on foam stability. The proteins and hop acids change their properties according the pH. There is a sweet spot for the pH at which there properties are postive which lies between pH= 3.8–4.6.

Amino acids: The building blocks of all proteins! Basic amino acids (arginine > lysine > histidine) interfere with the protein–iso--acid interaction to inhibit lacing of these proteins. Thus it decreases foam stability. Amino acids in the beer are often the result of autolysis of the yeast. This is caused by leaving the beer too long in the fermentation vessel. It is yet unclear wether or not autolysis rapidly occurs in such small quantities as we brew.
.
Malt manipulation: Higher colored malt contains less foam active proteins available for extraction into beer. This is because higher coloured malts require more intensive heating which causes the proteins to denature (unfold/break down). Thus this is a negative effect.

Removing of acrospires: Acrospires include basic amino acids and trans-2-nonenal (cardboard flavour when a beer ages), so removing them will result in higher foam stability.

Usage of wheat: Addition of wheat to barley causes more foam stability because of: (a) higher protein content of wheat than of barley. (b) the amount of arabinoxylan of wheat is also higher than in barley. Thus the viscosity of finished beer will be higher which causes more foam stability. (c) the size of bubbles will be decreased which results in higher foam stability. (d) the puroindoline (lipid binding protein) level in wheat is high, and in beer there will be less lipids and foam stability will be higher.

Brewing process
Generally: to produce stable foams in beer it is important to extract proteins as much as possible from malt to beer.
Mashing temperature:
If the mashing temperatures are low (<55 ◦C), the proteolysis remains active and causes loss of foam promoting proteins. More basic amino acids remain present in beer which cause foam destabilization as previously mentioned.
If mashing is performed at high temperature (71 ◦C), protease activity is inhibited. Proteins are less degraded and keep their effect on foam stability. All sorts of other pro-foam processes occur. As a whole, mashing temperatures of 65 ◦C or higher have some benefits on foam stability but over 65 ◦C it results in reduced fermentation (lower yield) because of inactivation of some starch hydrolyzing enzymes.

Milling: Wet milling may improve foam stability, leading to increased levels of polypeptides in wort and beer.

Wort boiling (the best is at 103 ◦C): Wort boiling leads to foam promoting of beer by different reactions, such as increased hop acid extraction and isomeration, stopping of malt enzymatic reactions, concentration of wort, and increased Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction improves foaming stability. The reason is increased glycosylation (coupling of sugars) of protein Z and LTP1 which tends to more flexibility of molecules to move to the air/water interface.

Pitching yeast into high gravity wort: this leads to severe stress on the yeast and reduces secretion of foam promoting proteases, thus reducing foam stability. Again, higher alcohol beers just hate foam.

Yeasts: yeasts excrete proteinase A, which slowly degrades hydrophobic foam promoting proteins (LTP1), leading to foam destabilization.

Pasteurization: causes denaturation of enzymes like proteinase A which is detrimental for foam stability (Evans and Bamforth, 2009) and thus it may favor foam stabilization in beer.

Glassware: Glasses should be clean. Fat residues inside the glass decrease the foam stability. In addition using nucleated (an edging in the bottom) glass favors foam stability and is widely used these days.
 

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I use PET bottles and never have any problems with loss of carbonation even if the beer has been in there for months.
If you have tiny bubbles stuck to the inside of the glass when you fill it with beer then your glass is dirty. I clean my glasses with clean detergent water, rinse and then dry with a dedicated glasses cloth. Never have any problem with dirty glasses.
Yeah I'm sure the glasses are clean. I've found the bottles have good carbonation and a livelier pint when quite young but this seems to fade over time. I do quite like a livelier pint and am thinking of using brewers friend calculator plus 20% and seeing how that works.
I've got some recent batches bottled with a mix between glass and PET so in a month or two I'll be able to determine if my PET's are problematic. Which to be honest, I doubt.

So you use detergent?

SWMBO put my beer glasses in the dishwasher a while back and I have to say the beers I put in them afterwards had good heads which held quite well.

I had a bottle of my red ale (from november/december) last night and the head on it was great as always. A brilliant beer and one im definitely repeating..... cant find the recipe though :sad1:
 
Pitching yeast into high gravity wort: this leads to severe stress on the yeast and reduces secretion of foam promoting proteases
Especially if you're using dried yeast and don't rehydrate at the proper temperature.

I'm never going to stop. Never.
 
Flaked barley. I'm not arguing, just saying. It's the best, as it has no flavour of its own so you don't get unwanted baggage along with the head retention, unlike that dreadful wheat in any of its variants. Some say it can impart a graininess. Ye? Well bad luck if you can detect it, and if you also happen not to like it. I can't so no problem. Hell I might even like graininess but it just ain't there.
 
Yeah, I tend to agree. Been using flaked barley a bit lately (from Holland and barret) and definitely think it aids head retention. I use about 5%.

I also got some flaked rye from h&b, but not used it yet. Apart from head retention does it bring anything else to the party?

I’ve heard the flavour contribution of rye be described as spicy. It’s not necessarily something I have picked out, but I do think it tastes drier/crisper in the finish, so nice in hoppy styles
 

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