So I have been brewing for almost two years, mostly extract, and I just started doing some all grain kits. I've been noticing that my all grain beers have little to no head. And they have also been taking longer to carb. My extract kits all had good head and carbed fast. I'm thinking I am doing something wrong during the brewing. I brewed a coffee stout and a Indian brown ale, both have terrible head retention. Both are taking their sweet time to carb. I did a partial mash pale ale using the same equipment and no problems with head, but it had some LME in it...
Head retention and all grain brewing
- Thread starter chungking
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BlindFaith
Well-Known Member
There are several issues you could have had. What was your mash temp? Did you do any protein rests? Any chance your equipment, bottles or glasses had soap residue? There is a wealth of info here and other places. I usually add some Carapils to help with head retention, but I only had to do that with AE. My AGs have all had good head retention. Check this page out: http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/06/25/enhancing-beer-head-retention-for-home-brewers/
Mash temps were 152 for Indian brown ale, 156-158 for stout. No protein rests, single infusion style mash for 1 hr. no soap used on equipment. I use the sanitize cycle on dishwasher for bottles, no detergents. So maybe some soap there, but I do the same for my extract brews, and no problems. The kits came with certain amounts of carapils, unless they screwed up the kits...
seigex said:
No. For the stout I even rinsed the bottles in a starsan solution after the dishwasher. This Is the first time I have done this, and the stout is the worst beer I have made as far as head goes. No head at all. Tastes good, just looks like coffee...
The darker and higher gravity beers all take longer to carb than lighter and lower gravity beers. The 2-3weeks at 70 is for an average gravity pale ale. Might not have any issues other than patience.
Revy's got a pretty good bottling tread on here that explains it all alot better than I do.
Revy's got a pretty good bottling tread on here that explains it all alot better than I do.
chungking said:
What temp are you carbing at? I had a stout that took a few months to carb. Wasn't much of it left by then but it did finally carb. I think yours will too. As long as you have yeast that hasn't hit its ABV threshold and some priming sugar you will get carbonation. I hate the waiting game. Like I said didn't have many make it long enough to carb but they did carb eventually.
