Head of a brew

Hops, caramel/crystal malts, wheat malt, and oats all contribute to head retention and body. For any DIPA, between the hops and some crystal or carapils, you should be good with the head retention.

 

In a double IPA, if you use the appropriate amount of hops, you should be fine with respect to head retention.

 

A DIPA for a second brew is not a good choice, too much to go that will go wrong, do something smaller and read more about how to consistently make good beer before you spend lots of $$ on what Im pretty sure would be an extract batch that you dont have the possibility of doing a full boil on

 

I would tend to agree with this. make a regular IPA about 6.5% ABV. Focus on these things before you go into double-land:

fermentation temperature (steady below 70F, preferably 65F)
yeast pitching temperature (wort same temps as above)
sanitation
full boils (even if you need to split the batch into two pots; split hops proportionately)
fast cooling (get a wort chiller)
KISS methodology and recipe formulation

you could literally just use extract and hops and make a great IPA with plenty of head.

 

Good fermentation. Fusel alcohols kill the head.

 

In addition to the other most excellent ideas...also consider including white wheat malt @ 5% of your grist.

 

I agree with @ryane and @AlCaponeJunior that you should do something simpler. Can you do a full boil? If not, don't bother with a DIPA. Can you chill a full boil quickly? If not, don't bother with a DIPA.

 

it is not usually something that needs to be designed into a brew.
well made all grain beer will not have any problem forming and holding good head. use an immaculately clean glass.

but also-
protein.
beer with protein will hold foam significantly longer than without.
wheat is your best bet here. no other beer foam is like a good german hefe. 5% will do it.

in addition to what others have said, vigorous boil, rapid chill, use of Fermcap S.



Cheers.

 

first and foremost, the less time wort is within the temperature zone when contamination from wild bugs is possible the better. best to get to fermentation temp quickly so the brewer can add favorable bugs ; yeast.

crash cooling limits the production of DMS.
cold break drops out protein and junk that is best not in beer, though it isn't a sin.

 

Im not 100% in agreement with the rapid chilling, I usually take 4-6hours to get mine to pitch temps, with the caveat that Im below 85F within 30min. Big breweries do not cool all that wort very fast, and I dont either, we both seem to make decent beer. From a newb brewer standpoint the faster you cool the better, but not from making good beer

Back to another point though, and that is if you cannot boil ~6-7gal of wort, you cannot truly make a DIPA, you just cant get enough IBU's in there without a full boil

 

My beers get so much head, I'm usually jealous........

 

Well the dangerous zone for DMS would be way higher than 85, off the top of my head I'd say more like above 140. Same with haze protein dropping, it probably happens by the time you get to 85. So you are doing it right, you get it out of the danga (read: dainja) zone in 30 minutes or less.

Big breweries don't rapidly cool wort? Are you sure about that?

 

and all that hot water gets put to good use as well.

 

They may transfer to a whirlpool, spin the wort for 20 minutes or more, settle, then run off through a plate heat exchanger. The wort, or part of it, will be at over 200F for up to an hour, maybe more.

Once the wort goes through the heat exchanger, it is at pitching temps.

 

Go for the DIPA regardless of what others want to do, do what you want to do, that is what makes home brewing great hobby you can do whatever the heck you want. Be prepared at all times for a dump tho because things can go wrong, (its all a matter of willingness to accept that fact). 5 years no dump yet.

 

Not sure I have a specific one in mind. You will need a coil of copper tubing, 3/8" or 1/2", some plastic hose, and a connector to your hose (or sink). You can probably build one cheaper than you can buy one. I have one I bought and part of one (the pre-chiller) that I made. The pre-chiller is the same but is inline before the main chiller because our tap water is usually quite warm (pre-chiller goes in an ice bucket). Either way, it's a very necessary investment for brewers.