I have brewed about 10 batches and I have gotten an enormous amount of head on the irish red and hefeweizen that I have brewed. No matter how I or others have poured it, I get a big head that takes awhile to settle. Any suggestions on what is causing this?
bottled or kegged?
Bottled.
Sounds like it’s over carbonated but you don’t give enough information in your post to help diagnose the issue. What kind of bottle primer did you use? How much? Did you use a priming calculator or just wing it? How long have they been bottled? Does the beer smell/taste OK? Did you take a gravity reading before bottling to assure that fermentation was finished? Have you had any bottle bombs?
Both I used a priming calculator and both I used DME to carb with. I did not check final gravity to make sure fermentation was completed. No off flavors.
Bavarian Hefeweizen
3.6 v/CO2
Waited about a month before bottling.
Irish Red
2.2 v/CO2
Waited five weeks before bottle.
The Hefe I have been drinking since July, all the bottles were pretty much the same, the Irish Red I have been drinking for about three weeks. The head is like a thick foam. No bottle bombs.
[quote=“ScubaBrew”]Both I used a priming calculator and both I used DME to carb with. I did not check final gravity to make sure fermentation was completed. No off flavors.
Bavarian Hefeweizen
3.6 v/CO2
Waited about a month before bottling.
Irish Red
2.2 v/CO2
Waited five weeks before bottle.
The Hefe I have been drinking since July, all the bottles were pretty much the same, the Irish Red I have been drinking for about three weeks. The head is like a thick foam. No bottle bombs.[/quote]
Are these the first or only 2 beers you’ve used DME to prime? I’ve never used DME to prime but everything I read about it claims it takes longer to carbonate than corn sugar and is less consistent. Some claim it makes smaller bubbles than corn sugar thus creating a denser, foamier, longer lasting head. This seems to be your experience. 2.2vol seems right for a red ale so maybe scale back a bit next time if it’s too much head or try some other primer. Sorry no one with more experience has chimed in but there’s my 2 cents. Probably nothing you haven’t already considered.
