Improve Foam Retention With Tiantai Brewery Equipment

The amount and quality of foam says a lot about a beer: how it was brewed with Tiantai beer brewery equipment, conditioned in fermentation tank and even if it was served correctly!
How do I improve my foam/head retention by my brewing equipment?
First, lets start with what “creates” and contributes to the foam quality in your brews. The “main” component of foam is something called hydrophobic polypeptides. So, what the heck is that? Polypeptides are long strings or organic polymers formed by amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins that tend to move up and away from liquid. If your beer is deficient in these polypeptides, this will hinder the head retention of your fermented beer.
beer brewery equipment, beer brewing equipment, fermentation tank, beer conditioning tank, brew house equipment

beer brewery equipment, beer brewing equipment, fermentation tank, beer conditioning tank, brew house equipment

The primary source of foam enhancing poly peptides comes from the grains used in your beer. This why if you brew a recipe containing certain specific steeping grains or DME, you may see a far better quality of foam than with an extract only recipe. Extracts, especially liquid extracts, contain highly modified malts, this modification happens during the malting and extraction processes. Because these processes work to break down the complex chains, you can end up with a poor quality of head retention within the beer. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to remedy.

Steeping in brewhouse equipment as opposed to mashing can be a quick and easy way boost the foam on an all-extract beer, the reason for this is the low and quick application of heat to steeping grains has a more minimal effect on the poly peptide chains found within any grain used within the steep. There are two primary proteins that make up these chains in lesser modified grains called Protein Z and LTP1. Protein Z is the most abundant within brewing grains and tend to be resistant to the enzymes that will break it down. Thus, the addition grains higher in this enzyme resistant protein will aid in creating a better beer foam. The secondary LTP1 protein is excreted during the mash and to a lesser extent, the steep. LPT1 is a shuttling protein that serves to move lipids around the membranes in barely and like protein Z, both Amino acids are hydrophobic which is an important feature when it comes to pushing CO2 bubbles to the surface on your beer.

So now that we know what components help to make those bubbles, what helps them to stay at the surface? The lion share of that duty comes from proteins called “Hordeins” that are found in barley grains. Having a good head formation and subsequently retention, comes down a harmonious proportion between proteins Z and LTP1 and Hordeins.

Iso-alpha acids are the bittering acids that come from hops! These hop acids also provide a valuable mechanism for increasing foam because of the reaction that occurs between the acids and the proteins in the malt.

So how do we increase the foam formation, retention, and quality of an extract beer? We steep the grains that give us the highest probability of foam and we boil some hops! Some of the best grains for increasing foam are Carapils, wheat malt, and black malt just t name a few. These grains have what we call “foam positive” properties. Steeping any of these grains and also boiling even a small number of hops with Tiantai brew house equipment, can go miles in improving the quality of your beer .

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Emily Gong

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