How do I get a creamy head on my stout?

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Permalink Reply by bart on July 18, 2011 at 7:20pm

It does seem to be hard to get a decent head on a stout. Keeping in mind that Guiness is 'carbed' with N2O instead of CO2. N2O is what is used to make commercial whipped cream so that different gas has a part to play for sure. If you want to achieve a greater head on your home brew stout I would try one or more of these things:

 

-Add 300g Carapils malt

-Throw in 3 or 4 weetbix into the mash

-Slightly increase levels of priming sugar (or carbonate more if you're using a kegging system)

 

There are probably other measures you can take too.. surely other peeps will pitch in their 2c soon! Good luck

 

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Permalink Reply by Paul Wicksteed - another1 on July 18, 2011 at 8:00pm

I have used Torrified wheat to help maintain the head, and it works pretty well. If you don't have nitrogen you can charge a poured stout to a creamy mouthfeel by quickly squirting a large syringe of the stout into the bottom of the glass while pouring. This creates the fine creamy bubbles, not really a convenient way to do it, but it works.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Wicksteed - another1 on July 18, 2011 at 8:26pm

Yeah stout taps are fitted with a small perforated disks in the end of the nozzle, this helps disfuse the beer, letting it cascade and become creamy.
That's what the syringe is meant to replicate.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Neilson on July 18, 2011 at 8:53pm

Its a combination of the Sparkler on the tap as Paul said and the Nitrogen that they use to carbonate the beer, nitrogen dosnt come out of solution as readilly as C02 hence why the head hangs around on the beer longer

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Permalink Reply by Paul Wicksteed - another1 on July 18, 2011 at 9:09pm

That would definately give it a hit. There is a cool system in the US called tap-a-draft that you can get Nitrogen and CO2 mini canisters for. And the best thing is you can put both a nitrogen and co2 into the same unit at a time to use a mixed gas charge. They look pretty cool, trying to look at what's needed for NZ distribution of them.

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Permalink Reply by Ralph on July 18, 2011 at 7:56pm

Ummm - put some cream in there??

 

Sorry, I am not being serious about putting cream into your brew!! I am interested in how to get a very creamy head on a stout tho and so will watch the answers to your question with interest.

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Permalink Reply by bart on July 18, 2011 at 8:55pm

Ralph - I just tried the 'iStout' from 8 wired the other night. On the bottle they suggested to make a 'Stout Ice Cream Float' by putting a scoop of ice cream in it. Incidentally, the 'iStout' had vitrually NO head so perhaps they were thinking along your lines!! Personally I was not too impressed with it, too thick and big in the mid range malts for my liking. Anyway, not to steer off topic, continue discussion of how to get a creamy stout!

 

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Permalink Reply by Tim Stewart on July 18, 2011 at 11:12pm

I crushed feed barley and put in the mash for my stout..........A little crazy but there is alot of nitrogen put onto feed barley to get high yeild and it did give an amazing creamy head ,But it did have a bit of a weird flavour come through but still ok for a first attempt

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Permalink Reply by Paul Wicksteed - another1 on July 19, 2011 at 7:54am

That's a clever idea Tim, will have to give that a try

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Permalink Reply by Greig McGill on July 19, 2011 at 8:18am

Good head (hey, someone had to do it) needs plenty of protein. Of course, protein is the enemy of clarity, so we often over-fine in an attempt to get better clarity and end up killing the potential for head formation and retention. How much kettle finings were used? Another thought is the flaked oats. Some varieties can be quite oily, which is a head killer. 5% Carapils should be heaps so something else is going on here. How's the carbonation?

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Permalink Reply by Scott Lyon on July 19, 2011 at 8:51am

Fined with Kopafloc only Half a teaspoon in 30 L @ 10min, used "Milk oatys" the packet said only finely ground oats in the ingredients but I will def try another brand of rolled oats next time. Anybody have a brand they have had success with ?

Carbonation was OK....mayby a little low but nowhere near flat, used 6 g per L of dextrose, would go 8 g next time same as our other beers.

What do you think of the torrified wheat / weetbix idear?

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Chris Banks on July 19, 2011 at 10:10am

I like using oat malt in my stout and flaked barley is also supposed to be good.

Malted Oats - http://www.libertybrewing.co.nz/content/thomas-fawcett-oat-malt

Flaked Barley - http://www.libertybrewing.co.nz/content/flaked-barley

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