There are a plenty of factors that affect the foam in your beer, there must be a difference in the foam of your beer and your friend’s beer. Inquisitive to know the reason behind this, here are some reasons behind:
- Detergent and other cleaning agents – Agents residing invisibly in a glassware can decrease the formation of foam. Hence, your glass should be thoroughly rinsed and dried before being filled with beer. Make sure to pour beer into a sparkling clean glass to get the head at the topmost layer.
- Lipsticks– The presence of waxes in lipsticks and chap sticks can block protein interactions and poke holes in the bubbles protective protein skins, thereby killing the beer foam.
- Fatty Food– Fats from food that are present on lips deter the stability of foam and the overall length of life.
- Alcohol Content– After an increase in percentage of ABV by 1%, alcohol ability to deter foam increases progressively as the alcoholic content increases. This simply means that alcohol acts as a foam de- former.
- Glassware– Some glassware are usually etched in the bottom to create an additional nucleation site and bubbles cling to the etched site and accumulate until they are buoyant enough to break free and rise to the top of your beer, increasing the head.
- Temperature affects the perception of taste and also the overall attractiveness of beer. It does this through disproportion (when larger bubbles absorb smaller ones to create a spotty effect, which happens when the temperature is high, creating a poorer foam in the glass, as well as in the overall foam in the kegs)
- Nitrogen has the unique ability to produce a creamy, rich mouthfeel and a thick head which produces a wonderfully drinkable and enticing experience. Being a bit insoluble, it produces small bubbles that create a very creamy, and stable head. This also explains the cascading reverse waterfall effect as bubble rises.