I am making a honey ale, original recipe, but I am having troubles with head retention. What do I add to make the head last longer? I heard crystal malt will help but I think it takes more than that to make a good head on beer. I've also heard that adding more hops will make the beer retain its head longer but I do not want to over power the flavor of the ale, made with orange blossom honey, to lose that orange accent in the flavor.

Any ideas?

Are you all-grain, or extract brewing?

Either way, the addition of cara-pils or dextrine malt will help. Usually you need at least .5 lbs per 5 gallon batch, although I usually use closer to a full pound.

If you're doing all-grain or partial-mash brewing, then you want to mash at a higher temp in order to leave more unfermentable sugars, resulting in a higher finishing gravity. Of course, this can leave your beer a little more "sweet" if you over do it. I usually mash at 156F for a more malty beer, and as low as 148F for less body, fuller attenuation.

Curlyfat,

You brought up a good question about fermentation sugars and cooking. My wife likes Mikes's hard lemon and lime ade. She now mixes about 2 ounces of frozen lemon or lime concentrate into a 12 ounce beer.

Can I get a sweeter beer with the lemon or lime flavor and still prime it by cooking it longer? I have made several of the Mexican Cerveza kits. They are the 20 minute boil kits. Have you ever tried to duplicate the Mike's hard lemon or lime ade? It is basically a malt lemon or lime flavored beer.

I would think you'd have to back-sweeten some how. I don't know if you can add Potassium Sorbate like you would with wine. I'm a little intrigued to try something like this. So, here's what I come up with:

Use extra-light malt extract to bring it to about 1.050 SG. Boil it for 15 minutes with no hops. Ferment it with a clean ale yeast (Nottingham or Safale - 05 ). At this point it should be somewhat sweet due to residual sugars and no hops to balance them out. You'd have to taste it to see if it's sweet enough. If not, I guess you could add Pottasium Sorbate to stop the yeast and add sweetness however you like. As for when to add the lemon/lime flavor, I'm not sure if you would do it pre or post fermentation.

A concern with this is that the hops act as an antiseptic to prevent nasties. Without them I would think stability would be a problem. If you could manage to pasteurize some-how, but that's a little scary as well.

I don't know if this helps, but now I'm interested in trying something like this for my wife!

I had thought about trying this with a wine but then a friend said they mixed frozen lemon concentrate with beer. Its pretty good. I had thought about sweetening with sweeta or some other fake sugar that won't ferment and I could still prime it. I think you are right I would need a real light beer.

curlyfat,

I have been doing some investigating. Here is what I am thinking:

Golden Wheat Beer, 20 minute boil kit.
8 - 12 ounce cans lemon or lime concentrate.
Add water to 5 gallons

ferment totally out.

Add sweeta to sweeten to taste in the secondary.

After it settles prime with the priming sugar and bottle.

I am concerned I may have to add something more than whirlfloc to clear it. If there is a pectic haze like in wine I may have to add pectic enzyme and I don't know how that would work with beer.

That sounds pretty good! I've never used artificial sweetener in beer/wine before. I wasn't thinking about priming since I usually force-carbonate in a keg. Generally, I don't worry a lot about clarity in beer. If my friends are bothered by a little haze, that's more beer for me!

I use all grain.

I would try adding a full pound of Dextrine Malt to your recipe, and mash at the higher side of the range. A little higher carbonation wouldn't hurt either, but don't over do it (BOOM! ).

Adding Dextrine Malt, is that higher in sugar content or protein? What I mean is, is the idea to increase more sugar or increase more protein?

It's higher in unfermentable starches. It will leave your beer with a higher ending gravity, but in my experience doesn't offer any sweetness at all. To be honest, I'm not sure if it offers more protein than other malts, but it does end up with a more full mouth-feel and the "thicker" result helps hold the head.

Now here's something that's hotly debated on many forums...

I leave my trub in the fermenter. Not including hops (i keep them in muslin bags while boiling for easy removal). Some claim that the extra protein in the trub helps both the fermentation and the head. Others claim it causes an off flavor that out-weighs any advantage. Like I said, I leave it in. I've never noticed any off flavors, and have left it out a time or two with out any flavor improvement. I don't have specific notes to back up the claim that it adds to head, but I've seen plenty of people defend it. Take if for what it's worth. I think it's one of the many old-wives-tales that persist in this hobby, but like many of them, has it's merit.

Thank you for that information.