Head retention on extract brew

I am having trouble with head retention on my extract brews and thought I would see if anyone has a helpful hint that will get me a little head, pardon the pun. I do not use the dishwasher for my glasses I hand wash them and rinse well before using. Is there anything that can be done to increase the foam a little. Tired of headless beer. Thanks!!!

Do you get any head at all or just no head retention. 100% extract? Partial mash.

Best advice... move up to partial mash. Trust me... it's way easy to do and it opens up all kinds of avenues in your brewing.

What about steeping some Carapils or Carafoam for 45 minutes at 148* - 155* at the beginning of the process?

How well did you rinse everything that touched your beer, from the boil pot to the fermenter to the bottles, anything in that chain that isn't rinsed very well can carry soap residue to your beer and kill the head. My failure was with the bottles where I did a wash and single rinse which wasn't enough to get all the soap out. That cost me 3 batches of headless beer before I was able to find the cure. Most kits should have sufficient head forming agents without additions.

add 250 mg of maltodextrin to the recipe

RM-MN said:

Most kits should have sufficient head forming agents without additions.

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This. You should be able to achieve decent head retention with an extract beer. Check your cleaning methods and make sure there isn't any soap residue (even a little) making it into the beer.

Could you be undercarbing?

Dissloved protiens in the beer make head,but is driven by carbonation in the glass. AE beer should have no trouble getting good head. But I don't use dish soap or the like to clean my equipment with. PBW & a good rinse always,including bottles. But a bit of steeped carapils or maltodextrin will do the job. I do PB/PM BIAB,& always add a half pound of carapils to the mash.
One of the books most mention said that irsh moss & the like can mess with head retention due to settling out protiens. I'll be using carapils in the mash tomorrow with some super moss 10 minutes left in the boil. So we'll see how true that statement is?...

Grinder12000 said:

Do you get any head at all or just no head retention. 100% extract? Partial mash.

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Mainly extract with steeping grains. As for head, I don't get much and if I do it doesn't stay around long. I have tried to use a solo cup and I can get a thin layer at the top that will stay for most of the beer but usually none in a glass.

ChshreCat said:

Best advice... move up to partial mash. Trust me... it's way easy to do and it opens up all kinds of avenues in your brewing.

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I think this is what I am going to try next. I am only set up for extract at the moment, does this require anything more than what would be used for extract?

mblanks2 said:

What about steeping some Carapils or Carafoam for 45 minutes at 148* - 155* at the beginning of the process?

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I have never tried this. How much would I need to steep for a 5 gallon batch.

dkeller12 said:

I have never tried this. How much would I need to steep for a 5 gallon batch.

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Half a pound to one pound should give you plenty of head on your beer.

The fact that you get a small head in a solo cup but none in your glass points to a soap residue problem in the glass. As I mentioned above, you might have soap residue in other parts of your brewing hardware too.

Another question... Do you have a dishwasher? And if you do, do you use something like "Jetdry" or soap that has something like that in it? That kind of stuff can leave a residue on the glass that kills head retention. If so, try handwashing them for a while and see if that makes a difference.

I use 4oz. of carapils for 5 gals and it gives you great head and lacing. Doesn't effect flavor or color, so you could add it to just about any batch.

Carapils is a pretty light colored malt. There range darker ones too for darker beers. They add dextrin or melanoidin. These are proteins and other compounds naturally occurring in the barley kernels that will end up in your finished beer. They also nutrition the yeast. All of these things effectually give a better head, more body/aroma to your beer, etc. Extract doesn't have much of this as the most sought ingredient is the sugar!

ChshreCat said:

Another question... Do you have a dishwasher? And if you do, do you use something like "Jetdry" or soap that has something like that in it? That kind of stuff can leave a residue on the glass that kills head retention. If so, try handwashing them for a while and see if that makes a difference.

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I do have one, but I don't use it for any of my brewing equipment or glasses. I do however use regular dish soap to hand wash and I am thinking that this may be an issue. I read in an older post about a salt scrub on the glass and I attempted that tonight and still no head. I just bottled a Bavarian Wheat today and didn't use my dish soap for the bottles and or the bottling equipment. That leaves the fermenter which was cleaned with dish soap but I know I rinsed the heck out of it so not sure. I guess I will have to wait and see what happens with these.