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Thread: Getting Head

  1. #1
    Official PG MILD tester Soup Dragon's Avatar
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    Default Getting Head

    Now i have got your attention, I wanted to ask your thoughts on 'head'. I love a head on my beer and struggle with beer festival and 'flat' served beer, which is one reason why i cant jusge the Wellington in Brum - great pub (though pricey) but no head. Now, I am in the midlands, where i believe you SHOULD get head, i am finding it being served 'southern style'. Is it not easier to pour it with head and top it up if you dont want head, than to pour it flatter where you would have to put washing up liquid in it to liven it?

    As this proves, i simply drink bear, i dont make it.
    MILD:

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    Official JDW Tester hopwas's Avatar
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    Wow... I didn't realise people is that fussy. For me, I am not bothered as long it is good quality. Although 'flat' beer normally means dodgy and past its best but actually I don't mind.

    Oh you mentioned Welly is pricey.. go to few doors down should save you fortune
    J.D Wetherspoon = Home of Hoppy: The Silk Kite, Tamworth.. http://www.tamworthblog.co.uk/2009/0...-blogs-review/

  3. #3
    Real Ale Drinker
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    Quote Originally Posted by Soup Dragon View Post
    Now i have got your attention, I wanted to ask your thoughts on 'head'. I love a head on my beer and struggle with beer festival and 'flat' served beer, which is one reason why i cant jusge the Wellington in Brum - great pub (though pricey) but no head. Now, I am in the midlands, where i believe you SHOULD get head, i am finding it being served 'southern style'. Is it not easier to pour it with head and top it up if you dont want head, than to pour it flatter where you would have to put washing up liquid in it to liven it?

    As this proves, i simply drink bear, i dont make it.
    You drink bear ?????? no wonder there is no head

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    Real Ale Drinker
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    You should sample some of the crap they serve round south and charge £3:80 pint and call it lager, shampoo would come to mind.

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    In Search of Ebriety Millay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tilly-Miss View Post
    You drink bear ?????? no wonder there is no head
    That reminds me of many many years ago, early 1980's. I was in the US with a few mates and one of them spotted a Beer Farm in the distance. He set off early one morning to walk there and take a look. When he got there he realised it was a Bear Farm, he started wearing glasses shortly after that.

  6. #6
    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    I don't see that much "flat" southern beer on my occasional trips down there. The almost universal use of swan necks, sparklers and thin pipework has done away with the old fashioned loose southern head - I blame that Sykes woman and that bloody Boddingtons advert. The only places I usually see no head is where the beer is straight from the cask. I don't mind either way as long as they don't take the pi55 with some huge head and I know you can ask for a top up but I did that in a well regarded pub in Lincoln once and nearly punched the barman because of his attitude and ill grace about it. Of course I do expect a lot of head now having been corrupted by these evil tykes

    We could argue about whither flat means no head or no condition (CO2 gas bubbles), the head on cask beer is not from condition but from air introduced by the serving mechanism unlike keg beers or pop where it's the gas and heading agents. There is an argument that a tight sparkler knocks so much of the natural CO2 out of the beer that it is really "flat" (as in no condition) in spite of the shaving foam look.

    There's no doubt a pint with a head looks a lot more drinkable than one without.

  7. #7
    I'll stay on me own runningdog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
    There's no doubt a pint with a head looks a lot more drinkable than one without.
    Southerner I may be, but I agree with you 'ob', it does look better. But, on the whole I'm with young hoppy, it's the quality, not the style, wot counts..........
    Pubs are a hobby, real ale is a passion. Oh, and like me dogs, fear no evil..........

  8. #8

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    1) No sparklers except for stouts

    2) Pour with swan necks properly - with the spout fully in the glass for the whole pour

    I grew up in the trade learning that no head meant a problem - old beer, under-conditioned beer or beer that's too cold. Therefore use a sparkler to disguise such beer. I now realise this isn't the case (always) and that some beers are actually brewed to be poured through a sparkler (sparkler knocks out CO2, making beer sweeter, hence northern beers traditionally being brewed more bitter than southern ones - can't remember where I learnt that from, but in the GBG in the brewery section you'll see a symbol for whether an ale should be poured with a sparkler or not.

    We cheat though, we use lined glasses. Although I am starting to get tired of pointing out what this means when the bar staff politely say no to a top up

  9. #9
    Palookaville hondo's Avatar
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    did someone order a foaming head

    Attachment 117
    "Do I know where hell is? hell is in hello"

  10. #10
    Official JDW Tester hopwas's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hondo View Post
    did someone order a foaming head

    Attachment 117
    Just like PG's logo...
    J.D Wetherspoon = Home of Hoppy: The Silk Kite, Tamworth.. http://www.tamworthblog.co.uk/2009/0...-blogs-review/

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