Extract vs all grain and head retention

[molc]

Heya,
So, I have about 5 kits and 5 extract under my belt now. For whatever reason, for the first 2-3 months on extract, the head is very thin and comes good then. Is this normal or does it suggest a failing of my process, for instance under pitching ( always make a 1 litre starter from liquid yeast) or something else? I don't get why the kits don't have this issue though.

Lastly should I expect an improvement from all grain? I'm going to go BIAB in the new year anyway, but I want to make sure my process is good first.

[auralabuse]

What way do you carbonate?

[molc]

one coopers tab per 300ml and 500ml, about 50/50 in size in each batch. The only difference I notice is a slightly higher carb on the 330 ml bottles, but the head retention is the same.

For bottle cleaning, I soak them in LiDl oxi (purple container), rince and store until bottling day. When bottling, I use a bottling tree with a starsan blast with the bottle rincer.

I'm soon going to switch to kegging, but I still want to understand this and will continue bottling some of each batch for meets and competitions.

[Dr Horrible]

I can't give you a reference because this is something I heard in a brewing podcast, but the lower level of head retention for a kit brew is due to the more concentrated boil you have for a kit, it destroys more of the protein responsible for forming the head.  All grains have a full batch boil so more protein remains for the brew, although I think you have to be careful with aerating the brew afterwards not to form too much foam, as the protein gets used up then as well. 

[molc]

I can't give you a reference because this is something I heard in a brewing podcast, but the lower level of head retention for a kit brew is due to the more concentrated boil you have for a kit, it destroys more of the protein responsible for forming the head.  All grains have a full batch boil so more protein remains for the brew, although I think you have to be careful with aerating the brew afterwards not to form too much foam, as the protein gets used up then as well.

To add a kink, my kits have had good head retention, my extract brews ave had bad head until the 3 month mark.

I've moved over to full batch boil on my last two extracts, but they are still in the fermenter and conditioning in bottles. Will be interesting to compare and contrast to see if this proves out your theory.

[auralabuse]

I have primed with carbonation drops,  normal sugar,  brewing sugar and force carbonation.  Head retention for me is a bit better with the force method but it has been all kits up to now.  I'm doing a biab next month so will let you know how the head retention turns out on that

[jawalemon]

Been doing extract the last year and i've found since i started adding 200grm carapils to the steep the head retention is great. I only brew IPA or APA so not sure how that would work on other styles