In this thread I wish to examine the reasons behind why a poor may have poor retention. The inspiration for this thread was a bottle of Bootlegger's Black Phoenix Stout. Now, this has happened a few times before, sometimes at bars, sometimes at home. I, for one, am very adamant that any 'normal' (not above eight or nine percent) beer should have a decent enough head to last, contributing to mouthfeel and helping to lock in aromatics. Now this beer, 6.7% abv, poured with mostly medium sized bubbles, not large rocky ones, which dissipated with such quickness as to cause alarm. Afterwards I'm looking at a Imperial Nonic glass with a pitch black liquid and scarcely a ring of tan foam around the edges - it reminded me of the pictures of Bourbon County Stout that I see in the 'now drinking' thread. To me, this is unacceptable for beer in the more 'session-y' range. It creates a flat, and thin mouthfeel and greatly decreases drinkability. Now on to the why? I know that certain grains in the malt bill will help with head formation and retention, such as wheat and oats. Could the beers that this happens to simply be undercarbed? I'm not sure that this is the case because I could still see many bubbles rising to the top of the glass against a blank, black surface of stout. I used to wonder why certain 'normal, non "big" beers I had served to me at bars sometimes faced head issues. Is this mostly a brewer's issue? I even changed my glass for the second pour of the bomber and did a straight down the middle pour to create a decent head, and it faded away seconds after reaching the top. BOOO to BAD HEAD! In closing, if you're a commercial brewer, and this is a big problem, then your beer isn't ready for retail. Thanks.
Bad pitch rate, high fermentation temperature, and residue on the glass can all be causes of poor head retention.
Keep in mind, that even the slightest soap residue on a glasses will kill a beer's head retention. Dishwashers (home and commercial versions) can be notorious for not rinsing glasses completely clean, so it might not be the fault of the brewer.
Ashton Lewis (aka Mr. Wizard) at Brew-Your-Own did his advanced degree work on beer foam and retention. Here are links to several articles in which he has addressed this phenomenon in the magazine. http://byo.com/head-retention If you really wish to examine the reasons behind good or bad head, you can find metric tons of true and vetted information with a simple interwebs search. Or you can get very, very simplified and slightly off-the-mark information by asking about it here. If you really want to just chat about it, ask this question in the homebrewing forum, as those folks actually put some of these methods and theories into practice.
there are maybe a dozen reasons why a beer does not have good head or head retention. a Stout is not usually a beer you would expect a big frothy head anyway. if this was poured with beer gas, then all bets are off. once those pretty N bubbles rise there wont be much CO2 left to help you out. go figure. that is the way its supposed to work. search within the homebrewing forum for head retention threads. Cheers.
And since many of the reviewers comment favorably on the head (e.g., finger width tan with light lacing) I'd be inclined to look to the residue on the glass.
Oats are actually bad for head retention because they are full of oils. You would need to look at the beer's mash temp, the use of caramel or carafoam (pils), wheat (or torrified wheat) can help, carbonating to higher levels depending on style, different types of mashing, adjuncts or other undesirable ingredients that might be thinning out the protein density, water profile, and a multitude of other factors. Sometimes, a brewer makes a great beer, it has certain qualities and flavors, but they aren't able to get good head retention. I get what you're saying, but there's a lot of work put into these things and in the end, I'll still drink it if its good.
Outstanding head retention was a virtual pipe dream 30 years ago in the States, Canada and even the UK. You young'uns today are a lucky lot.
In simplest of terms is surface tension and temperature of said beer and method of cleaning the glassware.
Pour a stout like its catching on fire in your hand if you want good head from good stout. Otherwise if your are into beers with good head retention drink wheat beers or nitro stout. That's what I do when I gotta get me some head!
