Head Retention Issue

[baloonon]

Here's a weird one. I have a batch of basic session ale which has very
different levels of head retention from bottle to bottle.

Some do great, some have none, some are in between.

Carbonation is consistently fine -- they all foam up when poured and
continue to kick off bubbles for a good amount of time after pouring but
only some retain foam, None of them seem overcarbed, however.

None of the bottles were washed with soap -- just rinsed well with hot
water and dosed with Star San. It doesn't appear to be an issue with
the glasses -- the first bottle can pour fine but the second in the same
glass might have no head, or vice versa.

I don't think there's any infection -- nothing tastes off, no gushers,
no weird floating stuff.

I've looked up water chemistry on the possibility that some bottles
having extra rinse water left behind might be a factor, but that doesn't
seem to be it. Likewise, Star San residue doesn't seem to be a likely
factor.

I'm not freaking out about it, it tastes fine, it just seems puzzling
that it's happened inconsistently with this batch -- most cases of poor
head retention seem to be consistent through an entire batch.

[Bill O'Meally]

Post by baloonon
Here's a weird one. I have a batch of basic session ale which has very
different levels of head retention from bottle to bottle.

Is the carbonation the same from bottle to bottle, or solely a head issue?

What was your priming technique? Mixing the entire batch with sugar in
a bucket? Perhaps incomplete mixing or undissolved sugar.

A bit of sugar in each bottle? Lots of room for variance from bottle to bottle.

Carbonation tabs? One would hope each tab would have the same amount of
sugar, but who knows?

[baloonon]

Post by Bill O'Meally

Post by baloonon
Here's a weird one. I have a batch of basic session ale which has
very different levels of head retention from bottle to bottle.

Is the carbonation the same from bottle to bottle, or solely a head issue?

The carbonation seems similar from bottle to bottle. The initial level of
foam is pretty consistent -- top of a pint glass for a 12 oz bottle. The
rate that bubbles continue to appear seems to be pretty consistent.

The weird thing is that the consistency of the foam varies a lot from
bottle to bottle.

Post by Bill O'Meally
What was your priming technique? Mixing the entire batch with sugar in
a bucket? Perhaps incomplete mixing or undissolved sugar.
A bit of sugar in each bottle? Lots of room for variance from bottle to bottle.
Carbonation tabs? One would hope each tab would have the same amount
of sugar, but who knows?

I batch primed in a bottling bucket, with the priming sugar dissolved in
hot water, added to the bottom of the bucket after a few quarts from the
fermenter were transferred, and then the rest of the beer transferred.
It's a method that hasn't caused this problem before.

Nothing in the process -- bottles, fermenter, bottling bucket, tubes, wand,
spigots -- is new and this hasn't happened before.

All I can think of is that maybe I hadn't rinsed my hands well after
washing them and got soap residue on the top of the bottling bucket. The
intial part of the bottling was with beer untouched by soap, but after a
while the soap got into later bottles.

I can't taste anything off, but I've read that trace soap residue on
glasses can kill foam, so maybe that's it.

At any rate, I figure it's time for a good rinsing of everything in the
bottling process before next time. Can't hurt.

[Joerg]

Post by baloonon

Post by Bill O'Meally

Post by baloonon
Here's a weird one. I have a batch of basic session ale which has
very different levels of head retention from bottle to bottle.

Is the carbonation the same from bottle to bottle, or solely a head issue?

The carbonation seems similar from bottle to bottle. The initial level of
foam is pretty consistent -- top of a pint glass for a 12 oz bottle. The
rate that bubbles continue to appear seems to be pretty consistent.
The weird thing is that the consistency of the foam varies a lot from
bottle to bottle.

Seems you have tried it in the same glass so that excluded lipstick
residue or anything on a glass.

Post by baloonon

Post by Bill O'Meally
What was your priming technique? Mixing the entire batch with sugar in
a bucket? Perhaps incomplete mixing or undissolved sugar.
A bit of sugar in each bottle? Lots of room for variance from bottle to bottle.
Carbonation tabs? One would hope each tab would have the same amount
of sugar, but who knows?

I batch primed in a bottling bucket, with the priming sugar dissolved in
hot water, added to the bottom of the bucket after a few quarts from the
fermenter were transferred, and then the rest of the beer transferred.
It's a method that hasn't caused this problem before.
Nothing in the process -- bottles, fermenter, bottling bucket, tubes, wand,
spigots -- is new and this hasn't happened before.
All I can think of is that maybe I hadn't rinsed my hands well after
washing them and got soap residue on the top of the bottling bucket. The
intial part of the bottling was with beer untouched by soap, but after a
while the soap got into later bottles.
I can't taste anything off, but I've read that trace soap residue on
glasses can kill foam, so maybe that's it.
At any rate, I figure it's time for a good rinsing of everything in the
bottling process before next time. Can't hurt.

What we do immediately after pouring a beer is put an ounce of warm
water in the bottle, swish around, dump the yeast residue, repeat. Then
2-3oz warm water, seal the top with a clean sponge, shake up and down,
dump. Then the same with very hot water from an instant hot water boiler
built into the kitchen sink. Got to be careful with that because if the
sponge isn't held tight enough scalding-hot water spews around. That
very hot water is left in the upright bottle for a while. 10-20mins or
until when the next one needs rinsing. Then we dump it out and set it
upside down to rinse. At the end of the evening they are all placed in a
carrier upside up. In the morning I carry them downstairs to the man
cave where all the beer stuff is. There they spend another day in the
open to make sure they are really dry. Then we store them in stacked
office filing cartons with lids so no contaminants can waft in.

On bottling day I use my old (too small) brew kettle and fill that with
about 3 gallons of StarSan solution. The bottles get a complete soaking,
I make sure they are "drowned" until all full. Two or more minutes later
I lift each of them out and place them upside down onto a home-made
9-bottle rack. Wood from an old market umbrella plus nine deck screws.

It's been 43 batches and so far no head retention differences at all.
What I did have was loss of carbonation and never on Grolsch bottles,
only on capped ones. I bought a new Ferrari capper which hopefully
remedies that problem. We'll see.