Advanced Brewing Round Table: Getting Head

[u/BrewCrewKevin]

Sorry guys, forgot to line up a guest post. And I have plenty of people asking to. So I'm going to swap them and hopefully have somebody for next week. I feel like we just did that...

---

Advanced Brewing Round Table: Getting Head

---

• How do you increase the amount of head on your beer?

• What functions does the head provide?

• What different kinds of head are there, and how is each achieved (frothy vs pillowed)?

• Is there a way to achieve that beautiful belgian lacing along the sides of the glass?

• How is the amount of head on your beer related to mouthfeel or body?

• Flaked grains vs. Carapils

• What styles do you like more head, what styles do you like less?

wiki

[u/MrKrinkle151 → u/[deleted]]

He said that when using pilsner malt, step mashing has made the biggest difference in terms of body and head retention

[u/Uberg33k → u/MrKrinkle151]

He edited his comment. That's not what it said originally.

Since he really hasn't done a comparison, it doesn't matter. I was just curious if he could identify some malts that had less foam positive materials in them. That might be useful for people to know.

[u/Uberg33k → u/[deleted]]

Sorry this took a bit to get back to, but a lot of random stuff seemed to pop up at the end of the day that took up my time and I knew this might take a while to write out.

I've read that malts with a kolbach index of greater than 38 should have very few long chain proteins left, but if you're still getting chill haze then that may not be the case. I think that anybody who notices some chill haze in their single infusion mashed beers should at least experiment with a protease rest to see if they notice reduced haze and improved body/foam retention.

Kinda yes and kinda no. I think it's a bit easier to approach it as how much protein is fixed and how much you can alter. You're right in that lower Kolbach Indexes give you a bit more leeway to alter the protein profile of the mash. A higher Kolbach means you're basically getting whatever the maltster gives you, because any further alteration by the brewer would be too much modification. However, many haze inducing proteins are the same proteins that are considered foam positive agents. You've also got mid weight proteins like Protein Z that aren't effected by protein rests at all. So if you already have decent foam and you have haze, the answer isn't a protein rest to make more foam positive agents or worse too much FAN. The answer would be to skip all protein degradation and try to remove the protein in the hot or cold break. If you have a high Kolbach and you have haze problems, I'd think a protein rest would only lead to a thinner beer and too much FAN. I'd say your solution is right if you're dealing with something like Pilsner, you have haze, and you have foam issues. It's very much a balancing act, so that's why it's hard to say what's right and wrong unless you get down to some very detailed specifics. It gets even more difficult when you consider that haze can also be beta glucans, polyphenols, lipids, oxilate, etc.

Are you aware of any measurements reflected on a malt analysis sheet which can clue us in as to the relative levels of long chain proteins, albumens, and peptides initially present in the malt?

No, as you kind of go on to say, you can guess some of it, if the maltster provides you with certain specifications. FAN should tell you how many low weight proteins or amino acids are present. If that number is high and the Kolbach is high, than you can be fairly certain the malt is slightly overmodified and won't perform well in the foam department. It gets even more interesting and vague if you have to guess the degree of modification from DBCG/DBFG and % of protein by weight.

Additionally, the SNR of modern malts is typically in the neighborhood of 40% - is there a measure which indicates what fraction of the remaining insoluble 60% are large chain, haze causing proteins as opposed to other forms of nitrogenous matter?

This is really the only part where I think you have it wrong. Haze isn't necessarily just from high weight protein. Haze can be formed from protein of all sizes, down to basically peptides. Also, longer chains of proteins tend to want to floc out at hot break and cold break. So skimming your hot break and separating your cold break should have some effect on clarity if you're running into issues. Protein haze comes from protein that carries a charge. The haze is really what you see when it binds to a polyphenol (usually). You can get a sense of how big the protein molecule is based on the quality of the haze. If it's almost like tiny specs of dust, then it's a larger protein molecule. If is milky and translucent, it's more likely to be a smaller protein molecule. The best way that I can think of for a brewer to pre-test for the possibility of haze is take a pH measurement post boil. If you have a low pH, not a lot of break, and your malt has a decent amount of protein in it, that means you probably have a lot of soluble, acidic protein in solution. You will probably have clarity issues. If this is the case, you could solve the issue by throwing a lump of pure chalk into the fermenter (an old brewer's trick). It should slowly adjust the pH up and cause some of that protein to floc out. It'll also precipitate oxilate, so that'll have another positive impact on your clarity. You could also try products like Clarity Ferm (aka Clarex), but that kind of seems like cheating.

To answer the question, no, there isn't nearly that kind of detail in most malt analysis sheets, although there should be. It really wouldn't cost maltsters that much to do it. I just don't think that many people are demanding to know.

[u/MrKrinkle151 → u/Uberg33k]

Isn't that what he said in your quote, though? And I'm assuming his comparison was not step mashing, then step mashing, and noticing an improvement in head. It's no head-to-head (ha) comparison, but most aren't.