Stout Braggot with no head?

[hartm]

I tried my hand at brewing beer this summer with the intent of making a braggot. I developed a recipe for the braggot that was based on a stout. I had 50% of the fermentables come from a dry malt extract which I added to my malt extracts (for this I used crystal malt, malted barley, and chocolate malt). I pitched the yeast and then added the honey (buckwheat honey) into the secondary.


The fermentations were very strong and the head that developed on these were big. After sitting for two months I bottled this and they have been sitting at 78 C for about two weeks.


I tried a bottle last night (after chilling). The color was a nice dark chocolatey brown, the bottle was carbonated, the flavors for the extracts, hops, and honey all came through.

But, there was no head

I even tried to pour it vigorously and only got a thin head that didn't last.


I still enjoyed the braggot, but I don't understand why is not forming the head that I was expecting (I honestly thought it was going to have too much of a head)


Any thoughts????

 

[paubin]

Head retention is based on protiens in the beer or in your case braggot. They create surface tension so the CO2 bubbles can hang out longer. High alpha hops can also help with this. The crystal malt should have helped but may not have been enough. The single biggest head destroyer I can think of is detergent residue on the glass used. Make sure your glasses are thoughily rinsed. I usually prefer bottling sooner than you did. I am wondering if you could be more specific with the amounts of ingredients and time frame.


Pete

 

[Dean]

If that doesn't work, heading powder can be used in the batch to help keep the foam.

 

[dzachareas]

How did you mash your specialty grains? How long? How did you sparge? If you just steeped the grains in water at a certain temperature and then pulled them out and did not rinse them with 170 degree water into your wort, then you might not have extracted as much from the grains as you would have hoped. However, your DME should have had enough protein in it to provide a good head, so I'm at a little bit of a loss. I had a beer that didn't fully carbonate for a while that sounds just like your beer. The "pssst" sound from opening a bottle, was there but weak, meaning it had started carbonating, but hadn't finished. After a few more weaks, the head was fantastic! I had to wait almost five weeks to get full carbonation. I used an older yeast and had an amazing fermentation so I figured the yeast was still good, but then it took forever to carbonate, so I guess it wasn't as good as I'd thought. I'd give yours some time and see what happens. Hope for the best. My beer was still excellent when it was almost flat, if yours is too then keep trying along the way and enjoy it as it gets better and better.

 

[paubin]

dzach, That is why i asked about sg. Perhaps it was to high and the yeast was at its limit already. By the sound of the recipe this was a partial mash with just steeping of specialty grains. We need the full recipe, times ...


LoL, Pete

 

[hartm]

Here is a summary....


Steeped the specialty grains at 165 for 30 minutes (did not sparge grains)


Bioled and added hops 60 minutes total.


Chilled in ice bath in a sink (I did not use a wort chiller). Added cold water to get 3 gallons.


Transfered to fermenter and poured back and forth to aerate thoroughly.


Pitched the yeast and fermented for two days. By this point the primary was ending.


The honey (buckwheat) was heated to 165 with 0.5 gal water. The honey mixture was cooled then transferred to a glass carboy (2nd fermenter). The fermentation from primary was transferred into the secondary.


The fermentation really kicked up again and the fermentation bubbled through the the airlock several times over the next few days. The airlock was changed 5 times over two days.


After the fermentation settled down the mead was left in the secondary for 1.5 months.


The mead was bottled into 12 oz bottles using sugar drops to prime each bottle. Bottles were cleaned and then run through the dish washer on high heat cycle (I did use soap, which may be the culprit). The mead has been sitting for close to 5 weeks now.


Maybe I'll try another one right now and see what if it has improved...

 

[paubin]

Between the dme and hops (if they were high alpha) you should have had a good head. Still not sure what sg you where at or if you where at top end of the yeasts tolerance. Running trough the dishwasher with detergeant could definetly been the culprit. I hand wash my bottles that were already cleaned in the past, in hot water with a splash of bleach, then throughly rinse. The dish washer just isnt trust worthy in my mind. If you are having airlock troubles with foam and such, try just using a plug with a 1/2" hose inserted and hose ending in a jar of sulfite water. (Blow off hose). Once the fermentation dies down then switch to an airlock.








Hope some of this helps,
Pete

 

[hartm]

Thanks for the blow-off tip. I will try this next time.


Do you think it would be good to Sparge the specialty grains with 175 F water? Would that give me a darker/more intense color?


Here are more details (I couldn't find my SG readings though)


I used....
0.6 lbs Crystal 60L
0.6 lbs Chocolate
0.3 lbs Roasted Barley
2 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
2 lbs Buckwheat Honey (in secondary)
0.45 oz Nugget (60 min)
0.45 oz Fuggles (30 min)


Yeast strain is missing with the SG readings

 

[paubin]

The more ya put down the more sure I am that you had a detergeant problem