American Wheat beer with no head retention

[eulipion2]

Hello,
I brewed the AHA Big Brew 2010 American Craft Beer Wheat on Labor Day, drinking it now, and it has absolutely NO head retention. I overshot my mash temp by a couple degrees, and my OG was just a little low. FG was spot-on. It's been in the bottle 4-ish weeks.

Otherwise I really like the flavor, and I'd like to do it again, but I'm wondering if I should add maybe a half-pound of flaked wheat?

Here's the original recipe:

O.G.: 1.043 (actual 1.039)
F.G.: 1.011 (actual 1.012)
IBU: 13.1

4.65 lb (2.1 kg) 2-Row Pale Malt (56.7%)
3.35 lb (1.5 kg) Wheat Malt (40.9%)
0.2 lb (91 g) Munich Malt (2.4%)

0.25 oz (7 g) Chinook pellets, (13% AA), first wort hop (FWH) addition (If Chinook is unavailable, substitute Simcoe or Challenger hops for 13 IBU.)
Yeast

Two (2) packages Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast, or two (2) White Labs WLP320 American Hefeweizen Ale yeast, or make an appropriate size yeast starter.

Mash in at 145° F (63° C) and hold for 60 minutes. Slowly raise the mash temperature to 169° F (76° C), then sparge with 173° F (78° C) water. Add the hops to the boil kettle and collect enough runoff to end up with 5.3 gallons (20 L) after a 70-minute boil (approximately 6.4 gallons, or 24 L). Bring to a boil for 70 minutes, and then turn off the heat. Next, chill to 62-65° F (17-18° C), transfer to a fermenter, pitch the yeast and aerate well. Continue fermenting at 65° F (18° C) for a total of one week. Rack to secondary for another week. Rack to keg, or if you are bottling, add the bottling sugar and then bottle as you normally would.

This was my first brew-in-a-bag and no chill, so I think I had just a little too high volume (should have boiled another 15-30 minutes).

Again, should I add flaked wheat, not overshoot my mash temp, boil longer, or simply wait a few more weeks? A wheat beer like this should be consumed young, but it should still have some nice head retention, right?

Thanks in advance!

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

Are you pouring into clean glasses? Residual soap on your glass can kill your head retention.

 

[eulipion2]

The glasses are as clean as I can get them. However, later today I'll rinse the glass out with the sprayer on my sink before pouring to make sure. But I've tried probably 5-6 bottles, all with different glasses or glasses that had been cleaned between uses, so I'm assuming the problem with the beer.

 

[Yooper]

The glasses are as clean as I can get them. However, later today I'll rinse the glass out with the sprayer on my sink before pouring to make sure. But I've tried probably 5-6 bottles, all with different glasses or glasses that had been cleaned between uses, so I'm assuming the problem with the beer.

Try a "salt scrub" on the glass. Use some water, and salt, like a paste, and "scrub" the inside of the glass with that and then rinse well.

That recipe should have tons of head!

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

If it's not your glasses, my only other thought is either you didn't use enough priming sugar or your pour isn't aggressive enough.

Most of my bottled homebrews I pour right down the middle. I don't usually tilt the glass at all and I get a wonderful head.

 

[jfr1111]

Wash your glasses like Yooper said and if you are using soap on any of your equipment, stop using it or rinse even better.

 

[eulipion2]

Okay, I didn't do a salt scrub, but I decided to try a brew I knew had good head, a Saison I brewed a year or so ago. Poured, into a .5 liter Harpoon UFO glass, and as expected it foamed right up, and I had to wait a few minutes to finish pouring. Shortly after that (after finishing the saison, of course!) I rinsed the glass thoroughly and poured the AW. It poured with a nice big head, but still dissipated fairly quickly.

I only wash my equipment with water and Star-San. If it's really funky I might use OxyClean to get the gunk off, but that's a rare occurrence. I have occasionally washed a carboy with dish soap, but it gets washed out so many times before any beer is added that I can't imagine that it would be a factor!

For the recipe I used 5 oz. priming sugar. I get a lovely, almost prickly carbonation on the tongue, but no head. Should I up that?

Thanks, I really do like the salt scrub idea.

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

Maybe throw a half pound of carapils in your next 5 gallon batch and see what you get? My head retention increased dramatically when I started doing that.

 

[wg_one]

Malto-dextrin is suppose to work well too. I'm having a similar problem with a wheat extract recipe of my own creation. I'm thinking I didn't use enough steeping grains is my problem, I only used about 6oz. of wheat malt for steeping grain (anyone agree?). I didn't use the Malto this time but I'm trying it with a batch of American Amber that's fermenting now.

 

[hops2it]

Try a "salt scrub" on the glass. Use some water, and salt, like a paste, and "scrub" the inside of the glass with that and then rinse well.

That recipe should have tons of head!

Sorry to dig up an older thread but I just wanted to say the above technique made a monumental difference for my IPA. Just got these to the fridge recently and was bummed about virtually ZERO head. Tried Yoopers advice and...

Wow. Great head and lacing all the way to the end which was also non-existent. Gonna be honest here, I've read this in multiple threads on this forum and kinda blew it off. Huge mistake on my part. We use jet dry in the dishwasher and I'm thinking that's the main culprit. I love it.