Priming and conditioning advice

I believe the "perfect head" has less to do with the carbonation method than the proteins remaining in the final beer.

 

There are plenty of priming calculators on line if you want to carbonate to style. But there's a big difference between head formation (which is mainly due to carbonation level) and head retention (which is mainly due to proteins).

 

Better recipe? Don't over think it - as you get more skilled at brewing, you'll find that head retention won't be as much of an issue anymore.

 

Using a portion of of wheat malt can provide more foam positive proteins. Highly hopped beers also tend to have more foam retention because the alpha acids from the hops stabilize the protein foam 'scaffolding.' Some Carapils (or Carafoam) malt can be helpful too.

 

Usually IPAs have great head because they are loaded with hop oils. Kind of ironic.

 

It's the acids. AFAIK hop oils (flavor/aroma compounds) have not been linked in any positive way to foam stability.

 

be certain your head retention problem is not related to your glassware. oily or otherwise dirty glass will kill foam. even if your glass looks clean, it could have some soap residue or scum. a good blast with very hot water will usually help. your glassware should be "beer clean". search the term for lots of advice on obtaining beer clean glassware.
also, you should get good head retention when you pour a bottle of quality commercial brew.

protein helps with head retention. if you are an all grain brewer, add some wheat malt or perhaps a specialty malt.
however
you should not need much help or really any help from malts to obtain good head retention if your brewing and glassware are up to task. true, some beers exhibit better head retention than others, but that is ok. as long as your beer is lively it won't be a problem.

as for determining the proper amount of priming sugar, use an online calculator. use a scale to measure by weight. do not use volume. know your fermentation temp, as this will have an effect on the amount of co2 present in the un-primed beer.

Cheers.

 

After digging around it looks like it's alpha acids for the win.

"Foam Factors: Advanced Brewing" in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Brew Your Own magazine supposedly has a write up about it.

 

I use table sugar and a priming calculator (figuring in volume or beer and weight of sugar). Dump the just-off-the-boil sugar into the bottling bucket and stir it around. I also usually add something to the mash to lift/hold the head (wheat or oats, usually).

 

To get a nice everlasting foam just add 2% of the grist of flaked oats,it won´t hurt beer taste.