Ok, I have been brewing for a quite a while. I brewed my first Winter Ale this Christmas for my family (I dont care for spiced beer much myself) because they were wanting some. I did an extract batch because I had 8lbs of LME in the fridge that I needed to use. I also added 4lbs of DME as per the recipe. The final gravity was 1.090. It fermeted great with a blow off tube. I kegged the beer and carbinated as usual.

My problem is, when you pour the beer it bubbles like a soda. The head will last for a minute or so, then it is totally gone. The beer tastes ok (I dont like spiced beer)and it is very high in alocohol but it will not hold a head like the beers I have brewed in the past. This is a first for me.. I did some reading on foam and head retention and learned that higher alocohol levels with hurt foam retention. Anyone out there have any ideas?

I'll take a stab at this. Yes, higher alcohol beers do tend to have less head and retention. I personally prefer that on a big beer. I want to say that the head and retention has to do with the surface tension of a brew. And alcohol somehow effects this. In any beer style, dirty glasses can be a culprit in lack of head retention. Any particles, grease, oil, etc. that is left behind on a glass will be sure to murder the head. That's why I always rinse my glass out with water before I pour. That's all I know about that. I always hear that Cara/Pils helps with your head and retention. Look into adding that to your grain bill next time. Good luck.

Hops also help with head retention and since this is a spiced brew I'm guessing it was pretty low on hop usage.

Alcohol does affect head retention and the addition of Cara-Pils helps add it back. I did, however, just have a sort of revelation. I don't have any data to back this up with, but it occurs to me that many spices have oils in them. It could simply be that these oils are killing your head.

I would like to point out that I have also had this problem, though. I've never made a spiced beer. Generally I run into this with a higher alcohol (7% or higher), that fermented fairly dry. If my final gravity is below 1.012 and a higher alcohol, I have no head retention. This is easy to take care of in an all grain situation (raise the mash temp), but with an extract you'd have to steep some cara-pils and hope you get enough of the necessary proteins.

And, as dcp noted, more hops always helps with a better head.

Yeah I do mostly all grain but thought i would use up some of the extract i had. I alway use carapils and i did with this recipe as well. I didn't use a lot of hops (2 ounces i think) where normally will use at least 5 ounces. It's weird, the beer is cabonated it just won't hold its head. It's like drinking a beer-soda haha.

Odd as it may be, I poured a beer yesterday and it had a nice creamy head. The beer kept a great head the entire time I drank it and tasted good. I guess it was just a time issue. note to self, if you brew high gravity/spiced beer, let it sit in the keg awhile.

10-4 Wild! I can't believe none of us mentioned that....

I no longer let my beer glasses go in the dish washer. Hand wash and rinse, rinse, rinse!