Keeping the heid!

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

DarkIsland

Active Member
Joined
May 12, 2020
Messages
35
Reaction score
12
My next brew (maybe next but one) will be a Bohemian style pilsner. I've never brewed a lager before and thanks go to member "Hazelwood brewery" for pointing me in the direction of a useful thread.

However, one of the things about this style is an insistence on a dense head. Sadly, I have never in dozens of brews had a lasting head on my beer, now it's never affected taste or texture but it's always been a source of mild annoyance. I've tried keeping glassware scrupulously clean, torrified wheat, flaked wheat, I even tried some chemical additive (can't remember the name)...none of it worked. It makes no difference whether it's tap water, treated tap water, spring water, distilled water with additions, the head is almost gone after 30 seconds and completely disappeared after a couple of minutes.

It's not something that keeps me up at night but I'd quite like a lasting head on my beer...any hints or tips?
 
Thanks for that, I'll give it a try? Not sure how it would go in a Bohemian Pilsner but what the hell.

5% of grist be enough?
 
Try a step mash with a rest at about 73c for 30mins max. Be sure to get clear wort before you boil. Also make sure you aren't using too strong a boil and aren't leaving the beer on the yeast longer than necessary, so pitch lots of healthy yeast.

The main defining aspect of a bohemian pilsner for me is lots of saaz character, which is good as lots of hops help with head. You shouldn't need to add anything to get a good head, although flaked barely certainly works. I think it has quite an obvious taste to it in pale beers when I've used it in the past, (in bitters) so might not be best for your beer
 
Interesting that Foxy...it's funny really as recently I asked about the use of caramalt and it was suggested that carapils is a good substitute..so,is caramalt a caramel malt or a dextrine malt? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick..?
 
I think you were given the wrong end of the stick! Carapils will not alter colour as crystal or caramalt will. But it is an interesting question I was reading recently about dextrine malt lifting the ABV of a beer, some of the starches do get converted during the mash.
I add my crystal malts at mash out just for colour, I once made the mistake of adding Gladiator malt which is a substitute of carapils just to mash out and still got a tight forming head on the beer from start to finish. .
 
My next brew (maybe next but one) will be a Bohemian style pilsner. I've never brewed a lager before and thanks go to member "Hazelwood brewery" for pointing me in the direction of a useful thread.

However, one of the things about this style is an insistence on a dense head. Sadly, I have never in dozens of brews had a lasting head on my beer, now it's never affected taste or texture but it's always been a source of mild annoyance. I've tried keeping glassware scrupulously clean, torrified wheat, flaked wheat, I even tried some chemical additive (can't remember the name)...none of it worked. It makes no difference whether it's tap water, treated tap water, spring water, distilled water with additions, the head is almost gone after 30 seconds and completely disappeared af
 
Thanks for the post. I was going to ask the exact same question. I've just made a rather tasty Belgium blonde ale, but unfortunately the head lasts about a nanosecond.
My previous brews have all had flaked wheat and they've worked pretty well, so just maybe that was the missing ingredient. 🤔
 
Try a step mash with a rest at about 73c for 30mins max. Be sure to get clear wort before you boil. Also make sure you aren't using too strong a boil and aren't leaving the beer on the yeast longer than necessary, so pitch lots of healthy yeast.

The main defining aspect of a bohemian pilsner for me is lots of saaz character, which is good as lots of hops help with head. You shouldn't need to add anything to get a good head, although flaked barely certainly works. I think it has quite an obvious taste to it in pale beers when I've used it in the past, (in bitters) so might not be best for your beer

Thanks for the advice, I batch sparge so would the first sparge step (at about that temp) achieve the same thing? I usually leave it for only 10 minutes or so admittedly before draining though.

Also for a pale beer flaked wheat is a better flaked adjunct, as you have tried it, maybe add 5% of carapils.
http://blog.brewingwithbriess.com/understanding-carapils/

The recipe I'm using is Pilsner malt 90%, vienna malt 7%, acidulated malt 3%...then it's saaz all the way, bittering, flavour and aroma. I might try using carapils instead of Vienna.
 
Thanks for the advice, I batch sparge so would the first sparge step (at about that temp) achieve the same thing? I usually leave it for only 10 minutes or so admittedly before draining though.



The recipe I'm using is Pilsner malt 90%, vienna malt 7%, acidulated malt 3%...then it's saaz all the way, bittering, flavour and aroma. I might try using carapils instead of Vienna.
Don't take the Vienna out, just add the carapils to your recipe.
 
Aye, plugged that into beersmith and it only gives me an extra 5 gravity points so still well within style. Thanks.
 
I use Gladiator malt similar to carapils only more local, fine bubbles in head and good cling to glass. This is my ESB.
001.JPG
003.JPG

Didn't guts it down, cooking dinner at the same time. Already done my gutsing.wink...
 
Looks the part mate thumb

I'm drinking a porter which looks great for about a minute then ends up looking like the aftermath of the Torrey Canyon...still tastes great though.
 
Back
Top