So for those of you that brew or are just beer heads, what is the cause of excess foam when pouring beer into a glass? I'm not talking about slamming the beer into the glass and creating foam or lovely guinness nitro head. There is a local brand that makes some good beers. But more often than not, when I slowly pour their beer into a clean tilted glass, it quickly fills the glass with foam with only a few ounces of beer. Is it just over carbonated or is there something wrong with the beer, is it old, did they not make it right? I stopped buying their beer for awhile and have recently tried it again. Still major foam not matter how slow I pour it.
I'll have to pour a beer and think about it. 

There are 2 schools. 1 is to reduce head to have more beer in a glass. But that leave carbonation in solution that gets released in your gut (causing that full feeling).  The other is this

https://lifehacker.com/pour-a-foamier-beer-to-minimize-stomach-bloat-1797941662

You can then use a spatula or other straight edge to scrape off excess foam from the top of the glass.

I believe temperature has a lot to do with it as well as the glass. a dirty glass will cause more foam. (soap residue)

... yep, as well as more salty residue on the glass (water condition, etc).

Quote from: Black Hills on June 07, 2019, 09:51:02 AM

I believe temperature has a lot to do with it as well as the glass. a dirty glass will cause more foam. (soap residue)

... yep, as well as more salty residue on the glass (water condition, etc).

I will have to look into this. We are on a well with a softner so salty residue may be there. I know it is not the way I'm pouring it. I have poured more than a few beers in my time and it is only this brand of beer that does it. I'm pouring into a 16 ounce wide mouth glass and as soon as it hits the bottom just about the whole glass fills with foam.

I know nothing about beer.

Thankyou for your help Cookie. 

In the UK-minimal foam. A tiny head. On mainland Europe-at least a quarter.

Don't you guys drink warm flat beer anyways?

Quote from: Papa Lazarou on June 07, 2019, 01:31:20 PM

In the UK-minimal foam. A tiny head. On mainland Europe-at least a quarter.

Don't you guys drink warm flat beer anyways?

For a country that invented the IPA^[1], I couldn't find one over there that wasn't just a sorry shadow of a beer, likely poisoned, and a complete and utter waste of time and calories. Horrible stuff. Finally found a Dogfish Head 60 minute after about a week, and was in heaven.

If you like IPAs and visit the UK, just enjoy their various ciders and adequate-enough ales; save the IPA as a treat for your return to the more civilized world.


1 - hops are a natural preservative, so the traders would over-hop their ales in order to keep them fresh for the journey to India, and the ales came to rely more on the hops and the light roasting, hence pale ales for India, aka India pale ales, aka IPA.

Isn't the bottle made from glass?  Why pour the beer into another glass container?

You cant smell it in a bottle. Your sense of taste is partially dependent on your sense of smell. When poured into a nice wide mouth glass, you can get your nose in it and smell while you are drinking it. A friend used to always use the tall skinny pilsner glasses. I poured the same beer in his glass and a wider one that i use. He was amazed that there was that much difference in taste.

As a home brewer (that hasn't brewed in a couple years) I think Andrew nailed it.  Either excess priming sugar, they are bottling before primary is fully complete (which can be a $ thing- getting more out sooner), or bottling under too much pressure (it's a temp/dissolved CO2 thing).  For fine beers I always rinse my glass first- I try not to pour into a dry glass- I think that helps.  I also never brewed with my softened well water- I only brewed with pure "city" water, which here is filtered and cleaned Lake Michigan water.  My well water left an off taste.

The problem is usually a home-brew thing with too much priming sugar or not a good enough mix when the priming sugar is added- that is indicated by some bottles being too foamy, some not enough.

But your research method?  Spot on!   

I'm going with the shitty brewer theory. Not every "craft beer" is worth drinking, in fact there's some from around here I wouldn't brush a dogs teeth with. That said I'm more of a wino than a beer drinker anyway but I do like a cold one now and then.

If the OP's beer is unpasteurized, it sounds like a classic case of either the distributor or the retailer not rotating its stock properly.  In short, the beer has exceeded its shelf life and has begun an unwanted additional fermentation.  I've encountered this a few times over the years with unpasteurized beers, and have reported it directly to the brewers so they can give the down-stream folks crap about it.  Good craft beer sellers know how to handle their stock properly; others may not.

I had thought of this also but will have to go with Clay and Andrew's theory. The bottle date was 3-13-19 on the one I opened tonight. Here is a pic of it in a clean wet 16 oz glass that I poured as slow as I could. It comes in an IPA sampler pack Hop Box of different IPA's. This is the double lPA. The Rye PA poured better but still foamed more than expected. The standard IPA poured perfect. This has happened to me too many times by this Brewer. I think I will spend my money elsewhere.

Huh.  That surprises me for Acadia.

Sidenote:  I was a regular there when they first opened until I left Battle Creek around '98.  I was sad to hear them close BC and move to Kazoo.  Now it sounds like they might be in trouble.

This is nothing new for me from Arcadia.
When Aura and I first started dating 15 years ago we were 40 miles apart. Craft beer wasnt as easy to find at that time. I had the GPZ  then and would stop by a local beer shop on my way up to visit on the weekends. I would pick up a six of Arcadia IPA in one saddle bag and a six of Great lakes Commodore Perry in the other. I always enjoyed both beers immensely. After about a year of this the Arcadia started to do this excess foam thing intermittently. After awhile it was about every time. I finally stopped buying it. Fast forward 10 years and founders started raping everyone on their Reds rye PA which I loved. So I see Arcadia has a Rye in their hop box and started buying them. It was as good as founders at half the price. Again, every other box I bought was and is having a problem with excess foam. MI is now the great beer state, plus all the other great breweries outside of MI. Life is too short to drink bad beer. As much as I enjoyed Arcadia's beers, I don't think they will be in my beer fridge any more.