Oil causing head retention issues?

You may have answered your own question. Both cocoa powder and coffee add oils that can hurt head retention, so that seems like the logical conclusion. Is that the be-all and end-all? I couldn't say without actually being there and having seen everything, but I will say that there's usually enough head retention left to fight the oils... but if you see an oil slick that's not a good sign. On the up side, many commercial brews that utilize said items also suffer, so it's not that bad, and as long as it tastes good that's what really counts.

 

It sure sounds/appears to be an oil issue.

Lack of foam does have a negative consequence from an appearance perspective but the aspect that would personally bother me more is that lack of foam will impact the overall drinking experience since foam delivers and releases the aromatic compounds of the beer.

Cheers!

 

Sure, see it many times in my brews containing, coconut, nibs, coffee and other ingrediants that have oil/fats.
Personally, I love the taste of these beers and don't care if there is a big head or not, however, one time I did add 1 lb carapills and a half lb of flaked barley to a coco nib coconut coffee stout , then added 6 oz of bottleing suger to 5 gall. There was some head fer sure!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That's interesting that using two different products produces wildly differing results. Do these products have nutrition labeling that lists fats/oils that could tell the reason for the difference? we could all learn from this if you can identify those label numbers and/or the products.

 

@Mothergoose03 mostly I and a run and gun brewer. I do keep notes and weight ingrediants , but im not going to bullshit you that I have a big ass degree, I don,t. just try new combos of ingrediants and sometimes they work well. Never worry about IBUs, ABVs, SMRs or all that other stuff. Im a makin beer for drinkin an I gots folks a waitin on me. on to the spruce

 

Oops, I completely missed the coffee part of your initial post. Thanks for the comeback.

 

I personally havent had any issues with head retention from coffee, but I put whole beans after fermentation in primary. Doubt eh boiling would effect the amount of oils. Is the beer fully carbed? Keg or bottle?

 

I'd check the ingredients on your cacao powder, but I suspect it's the coffee as well. I have another question though. Why did you boil cold brewed coffee. That is destroying the point of it being brewed cold and you are losing flavor.

 

did you boil the coffee beans or the cold brew sans beans?

 

hmmmm... I dont have experience with this. breweries do add cold brew coffee to their beer, but idk of any that boil it. I would find out what they do for the next batch.

 

Cocoa powder has some fat, but nowhere near as much fat as (say) cocoa nibs. Coffee (no matter how added) can be pretty dang oily though, in my experience.