I brewed a Bell’s Best Brown clone a month ago and I’ve got it in the keg now. It dispenses and foams up an awful lot, even with pressure almost nill. The head doesn’t dissipate very much at all. What causes it to have so much of a viscous, thick and sticky head retention? I used Marris Otter, Victory, 55L Crystal, and Special roast malts. I haven’t had a beer behave like this before. Any ideas why? |
No f’n clue. |
not sure either... |
So, your beer has a thick, sticky head that retains well? Are you complaining? |
If you increase your dispensing line length you should get less foam in your pours. |
Originally posted by artusory Nope. Just wondered why it was so heavy and wouldn’t dissipate for several minutes, which embarassed me when serving it to friends. I’ve since taken it off pressure, allowed it to sit for 48 hours under neutral air and it’s own natural carbonation has pressurized it enough to slowly dispense the brew. Much less head, better fill. One inch instead of 6 inches of foam. I’m a happy camper again. I obviously overpressurized it. I think my dispensing line is too narrow (i.d. wise), too. Anyway, it’s O.K. now. It’s much richer and has more mouthfeel than the real Bell’s Best Brown. I guess I’ll call it Bell’s Next-to-the-Best Brown, now. Thanks to all who offered input. |
In my experience / experimentation, I have found that when I carbonate to lets say a higher carbonation level then I have this problem. I’m not saying over carbonating as in taste. For convenience and room I use a picnic tap on about 1 ft. of hose. This is not enough restriction to compensate. I’m not sure how to explain this in volumes, so I’ll try another approach. You carbonate at 30 psi to get your desired level and then reduce pressure on the gauge to dispensing pressure, lets say 5 psi. You then bleed pressure out of keg to match the dispensing pressure (5 psi). Lets say that the internal pressure of the beer is higher than 5 psi. Over time CO2 will exit the beer to the headspace to achieve equilibrium inadvertently raising the dispensing pressure. Now you may be dispensing at 10 or 15 psi. When at 5 psi normal foam. At 10 or 15 you get high foam. |
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