I think it’s one of life’s little pleasures seeing the rings left in my glass after each gulp; that's the effect. Like all of life’s pleasures there are causes, and I’m wondering what causes this one. So, I have a question about rings. Look at the pic below: ooops, not those rings (of paper).....these rings: Is that considered desirable and, if yes, is the desirability style dependent? What is it that makes one beer more likely to make those rings than another? Is it predominantly the grain bill, yeast, carbonation? Is it how well the glass is cleaned? I’m thinking it’s different but closely related to ‘lacing’, so wondering if there’s an ABV component to it? Would higher ABV promote more lacing as opposed to the rings? A combination of all/some of the above? What say ye? ETA: the glass most recently held a 6.8% IPA from a local brewery but the thread is aimed at achieving the rings, at will, in homebrew.
Oh grasshopper . . . you ask many questions. It is all very simple: What you amateurishly call "rings o'foam" was, is, and will continue to be Belgian lacing. It is related to the glassware; a glass with a hole in it will never display this pattern (note absence of hole in pic below). Also related to frequency; those who rarely drink beer will rarely see it, those who abstain - - never. That is all you need to know to continue your quest other than a 4 digit lock has a mere 9999 combinations . . . quite naive considering our current state of affairs.
Well....we find ourselves in quite the conundrum, discovered only after a thorough and detailed inspection of your submission.
More than a conundrum . . . I see your journey as long and arduous, may your crusade lead you to peace.
I think I'll name the top pic 'Charmin Secured' and the bottom one 'Humanity In Everyday Life.' The various levels from top to bottom show a wintertime forest and mountain scene, then two levels of snow, then three levels of humanity with a little Sponge Bob, a skunk, and a duck skull.
There are many compounds that affect foam retention (and lacing) both positively and negatively. (I would call the rings in your pic lacing.) I believe alcohol is actually "foam negative." But higher alcohol beers also tend to have more of the foam positive compounds, derived from malt and hops, so it tends to offset somewhat. One of the really important ones is LTP1. If you are old, this does not mean Line Printer 1 parallel port. It is a protein. There have been several studies on foam retention of various worts (i.e. from various grains). But not a single one, as far as I can tell, that used finished beers, or even boiled worts. To me, that's crazy, since boiling and fermentation affect beer chemistry and can alter protein shapes. Which might be important, since certain proteins form the "scaffolding" of beer foam. So, if you see results from these studies that claim Malt X was shown to have better foam retention than Malt Y, take it with a grain of salt. In fact, the studies were done without salts.
I stopped using malts that claimed to help head formation and retention. Well, except for wheat. Same for additives. Fermcap is supposed to help foam in addition to boil over (which it does like magic) but I found that my beers were no better and no worse with or without the specialty ingredients. Just practicing good brewery technique is more than enough to get quality foam. Seems to me. Anyone using CaraFoam or Crystal malts strictly for foam? Cheers
False prophets, charlatans & soothsayers alike would have all missed the skunk and duck skull . . . only an Enlightened Spirit sees it all:
I believe carapills was once suggested as a foam retention grain. I've used it and have no complaints. As far as lacing goes, I have no idea. Brew on.
@riptorn, if you desire to read more you could buy the book FOAM: Practical Guides for Beer Quality by Dr. Charlie Bamforth: https://www.amazon.com/FOAM-Practic...Guides+for+Beer+Quality&qid=1585057787&sr=8-1 Cheers!
Okay, but I'm not that bun-head dude that is in the ginger ale commercials. By the way, your foam pic has Pacman ready to gobble up that column of reflecting light.
Same here. I have zero issue with the foam quality, lacing or anything like that with any of my beers... From 100% pils grain bills to complex imperial stouts... No issue. Good technique and a clean glass will do wonders for the visual appeal of the beer!
Only beers I've made that I had problems with lace were high abv beers where I didn't get carbonation. Removing all soap from the process helps, including the glass. Detergent only. PBW and OxyClean Free are your friends. More highly carbonated beers will obviously have more. All grain saisons that have a fair portion of wheat tend to be best.
I haven’t had much of an issue with foam stability, except when undercarbing. My curiosity was mainly about the rings left by the lacing. I guess it’s just a result of good foam being washed away (and the glass being lubed) by beer. While searching for "LPT1" (and culling the returns for printer ports) I found This pdf by John Palmer that (while not a study) talks about foam-positive stuff. There’s a lot in it I don’t understand. From a perspective of wanting to know what actions can be taken to promote good foam, and being less concerned (for now) about how/why those actions promote good foam, here are some points from the pdf that stuck out to me: Don’t boil too hard, too hot or too long Don’t stress the yeast Iso-alpha acids aid in foam stabilization Length of protein rest is important when using less-modified malts Highly kilned malts aren’t a big help to foam stability Melanoidins in roasted malts do help Anything jump out as being misrepresented by me? Something important I missed?
