How to put a head on a flat beer

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MyQul

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So you've spent the last few weeks carefully crafting your brew and now is the moment of truth. You pour your beer but no head! All is not lost.

Take a 10ml syringe and use it to suck up some of the beer in your pint glass then slowly squirt it back into the pint. This will cause a head to form on your beer. Careful though if you carbonate quite heavily as this will just cause a massive head

To cause the tight bubbles/creamy head - Once you've got that head, suck some of it up (but NOT the beer below )and squirt it back into the beer. Do it a few times and you should have a nice creamy head on your beer.

The sucking up of the head with the syringe and squirting it back in seems to release CO2 and create a head with smaller tightly packed bubbles - sort of like a sparkler on a hand pump

The first piccy is my beer poured from the bottle. It carbonated (batch primed) but kind of low at 5g/L. The second piccy is a minute or so later

WP_20141214_18_56_49_Smart.jpg


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Trouble is if it is flat to start with it will still be flat after, just with a bit of a head.

Your right, it's not going to carbonate your beer for you but you'd be surprised how well it works,. I don't like much carbonation in my beer but like a creamy head on stouts and porters. Using the syringe gives me the best of both worlds

I'ts also good if you had washing up liquid anywhere near your beer equipment and not getting a head on your beer
 
I find if you just pour the first bit from a bit of a height flat onto the bottom of the glass so it hits the bottom hard you'll get a head from that, then pour normally down the side of the glass at an angle till the glass is full and you should get a nice pint every time.
 
The syringe does work well, however don't draw too much up and fire it back in otherwise you will have beer everywhere:nono::mrgreen:
 
Went to give this a go and the bottle I opened was bloody flat, typical! I need to refine my batch priming technique I think.

I find that putting two teaspoonful of sugar into one bottle and then no sugar into the next, makes for an interesting time when I open them. :doh: :doh:

My forgetfulness (my word) or stupidity (SWMBO's description) is why I normally mix the sugar into the brew in the Bottling Bucket. :thumb: :thumb:
 
I saw a Post where a Forum Member recommended using a small syringe to put a head on a pint of beer and I thought "That's a good idea if it works."

I am glad to report that it works a treat and I intend using the method in the future. :thumb: :thumb:

I love having a head on my pint but I hate heavily carbonated beer so I have always considered it to be an "either/or" situation; so I brewed for low carbonation and forfeited the head.

Check out the photographs and discover that I can now have both ... :thumb: :thumb:

... but I still have to perfect the way to do it! :doh: :doh:

BTW, the beer is a lager and the glass is a replacement after SWMBO broke the trusty 750ml glass that I inherited off my brother.

It doesn't reflect any increased consumption on my part, but it does reflect my desire to decant a 650ml bottle of beer in one smooth pour so as to leave behind as little residue as possible. :thumb: :thumb:

Lager before.jpg


Lager after.jpg
 
Guinness used to sell one version of their stout with a little syringe-like injector in the pack to do just this. Back in the mid eighties, I think.
 
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