Why is Guinness head so white?

[Steve Shapson]

Any pro brewers out there that know how to get a white head on a homebrewed
stout? The kind of white head famous on Guinness Stout?

I've been all grain brewing for some time. All my stouts come out with a
light tan head.

Steve

[Rage85]

On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 03:26:29 GMT, "Steve Shapson"

Post by Steve Shapson
Any pro brewers out there that know how to get a white head on a homebrewed
stout? The kind of white head famous on Guinness Stout?
I've been all grain brewing for some time. All my stouts come out with a
light tan head.
Steve

Are you pushing it with Co2 or a beer gas mix ?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Alex]

The head in the Guinness commercials is a whole lot more white than it
is on the product itself.

This may result from the fact that in many commercials there is no head but
shaving foam on the beer. At least that's what I heard...

Using shaving foam makes sense. It's easier to sculpt than the real
thing, and (apart from the colour) it looks like the real thing.
Photographies can be retouched to have the right colour, so I think that
the white head in the ads is by choice.

[Mohawk Brewing]

Guinness has a pour spout that mixes CO2 with nitrogen, and makes extremely
small bubbles, but the color if you look close is a very slight tan color..
If you are trying to get a head like the commercial, get a great model and
some shaving cream.

Post by Steve Shapson
Any pro brewers out there that know how to get a white head on a homebrewed
stout? The kind of white head famous on Guinness Stout?
I've been all grain brewing for some time. All my stouts come out with a
light tan head.
Steve

[MDixon]

Post by Steve Shapson
Any pro brewers out there that know how to get a white head on a
homebrewed stout? The kind of white head famous on Guinness Stout?
I've been all grain brewing for some time. All my stouts come out with
a light tan head.

I think the nitrogen dispensing system has a lot to do with it. A really
fine foam will look white no matter what the colour of the liquid that
comprises it.
However, in Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels states (and I know I've
read it elsewhere) that black malt imparts less colour to the head than
roast barley. Most of the homebrewing wisdom concurs that Guinness
contains only pale malt and roast barley, but since the Guinness company
do their own malting and roasting (at least to the extent that the St
James' Gate brewery smells like a coffee house), perhaps they have a
technique which produces a roast that imparts less head colouring?

Guinness' head always has a sort of brownish look IMO....
Loading Image...
Loading Image...
Loading Image...

Cheers,
Mike

[Denny Conn]

I do think it looks whiter in their advertising though..

And you _believe_ advertising??? :) If you'd ever been on a food
shoot, you'd know how much inedible crap they put on food to make it
look better than it does!

--------->Denny

[John Misrahi]

Post by Denny Conn

I do think it looks whiter in their advertising though..

And you _believe_ advertising??? :) If you'd ever been on a food
shoot, you'd know how much inedible crap they put on food to make it
look better than it does!
--------->Denny

Of course I don't believe everything i see in ads. I meant to say that the
ads make it appear whiter than it is when you get a pint of it in front of
you. Therefore supporting the inedible crap theory ;-)

john

[evilpaul13]

Post by MDixon

Post by Steve Shapson
Any pro brewers out there that know how to get a white head on a
homebrewed stout? The kind of white head famous on Guinness Stout?
I've been all grain brewing for some time. All my stouts come out with
a light tan head.

I think the nitrogen dispensing system has a lot to do with it. A really
fine foam will look white no matter what the colour of the liquid that
comprises it.
However, in Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels states (and I know I've
read it elsewhere) that black malt imparts less colour to the head than
roast barley. Most of the homebrewing wisdom concurs that Guinness
contains only pale malt and roast barley, but since the Guinness company
do their own malting and roasting (at least to the extent that the St
James' Gate brewery smells like a coffee house), perhaps they have a
technique which produces a roast that imparts less head colouring?

Guinness' head always has a sort of brownish look IMO....
http://www.earth2marsh.com/images/dublin/guinness.jpg
http://www.bier-selbstgebraut.com/images/guinness.jpg
http://www.joshrocket.net/p/e/guinness.jpg
Cheers,
Mike

That's my experience with it too. It always looks brownish/tan to me
in person as well. Yet, all the ads have it looking white. I know
which I believe...

[Ken Anderson]

The head in the Guinness commercials is a whole lot more white than it
is on the product itself.

This may result from the fact that in many commercials there is no head

but

shaving foam on the beer. At least that's what I heard...

I thought the cover of the Korzonas book looked fishy.
Loading Image...

[fischherr]

...cover...book...

Well, if THAT's not shaving foam, then what is?

--
* www.brauherr.de
* (wenn Bier für Sie nicht nur gelb ist und blau macht)

[TonyM]

In the USA they have to use the actual product in advertising spots, so I
doubt they use shaving creme.

They can play with the exposure and white balance though and make the color
a bit different.

The reason I know about the food commercial thing is they just had a big TV
show thing about it on one of the satellite channels. This woman said she
went through 200 boxes of a product to get a handful of "perfect examples"
to photograph. Then said she had special techniques on photoshoots for
icecream, too cold freezer temps and you get a weird texture, too warm and
you have only 20-30 seconds under the lights before you get "soup".

This only applies to TV commercials and magazine sales ads as far as I know.
Now, that book cover shure looks like shaving creme or Cool Whip topping.
Imagine the moustache after trying to drink that... ;)

Post by Steve Shapson
Any pro brewers out there that know how to get a white head on a homebrewed
stout? The kind of white head famous on Guinness Stout?
I've been all grain brewing for some time. All my stouts come out with a
light tan head.
Steve

[fischherr]

Post by TonyM
In the USA they have to use the actual product in advertising spots, so I
doubt they use shaving creme.

Honestly, almost anywhere people must not do criminal things. Nevertheless
some do. So "having to" does not automatically lead to "doing". And then,
using the actual product does still not mean not being allowed to decorate
it.

Post by TonyM
They can play with the exposure and white balance though and make the color
a bit different.

They could as well simply retouch it on the computer.

I have once seen how they produced a commercial on a candy bar. You know,
they always have this short scene on how the kernel dives into liquid
chocolade and then gets some crunch or peanuts or whatever spread on it. I
only remember the candy kernel having been made out of wood and the rest of
some other weird things.

--
* www.brauherr.de
* (wenn Bier für Sie nicht nur gelb ist und blau macht)