Head at Home

The first hints of aroma build anticipation on your tongue – it seems impossible restrain the urge to guzzle your refreshment in a swift totality. Let yourself be consumed by the vision of the brewer, let every cell in your soul resonate with the melody of malts and harmony of hops. Soak it all in and smile.

When we drink beer, we seek to maximize this euphoric experience and it’s an experience hard to attain outside of a freshly tapped keg in the tap room. As we sit and sip on our beer at home, we dream of the full flavored beer right off the tap, wishing we could enjoy it in the leisure of our own home.

My People of the Pint, this post will guide you on how to bring that taste of romance to your personal pint, and the secret is all in the pour. 

I first read about this new (to me) pouring technique in Randy Mosher’s book Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink (a must own for any beer lover) which discredits the classic bar style pour that our beer egos thrive on. To reconcile with my bruised pouring pride, I decided I would do an experiment to see how noticeable this new pouring style actually made the beer taste. 

The Technique:

Pour your beer straight down and fill approximately ¼ of the glass. Let the resulting head settle and pour another ¼ worth of beer. Patience. Let the head settle again and continue this process until the last drop has been emptied from bottle/can/etc.

When you pour this way, the CO2 is allowed to release slowly from your beverage. To avoid going into gross detail (which I highly recommend you research for yourself), the slower release of CO2 lets out the carbonation from the body of the beer and yields a stabilized lattice of proteins giving the head a thicker integrity. [On a side note, I believe pouring this way relieves that “bloated” feeling some get after drinking a beer because the CO2 is released in the glass rather than in your stomach.]

I tested various styles of beer with both pours: one classic bar pour and one suggested “at home pour”. To my honest surprise, it was like drinking two different beers. 

 

The aromas were striking, sending strong suggestions to my tongue. I was able to follow the story of the flavors and notice different notes, peaking and fading through the lifetime of that first sip. And, the head was exemplary. 

Can you guess how each beer was poured?

Each beer poured in the classic bar style was obnoxiously overcome with CO2 than the “at home pour” counterpart. Having both pour styles in front of me I was able to distinguish a stark difference in taste; one beer tasted like lazily flavored seltzer water and the other was a full bodied beer of goodness. 

The head retention and size varied from style to style. Wheaty and malty beers had a significantly more structured head than that of a sour of IPA. 

 

"At home pour"(left) produces a denser, long lasting head than "bar pour" (right)

For the beer drinkers who do not like head on their beer may be interested to know that the frothy surf is more than just an accessory of pleasure (or a nuisance depending on your persuasion). The head on a beer actually protects the aromas of the beer, which in turn, enhance the beer’s character, body and flavor. So  those of you who are unappreciative of a collar, I urge you to reevaluate your beer pour in order to obtain high end head for the sake of the beer; plus, who doesn’t like a little foam stash to start off your happy hour? 

I will never pour beer the same, nor will I ever look at beer the same after this revelation. Every night that I crack open a bottle I step into a suit of a connoisseur, salivating at the beer-sperience the pint has planned. No matter how many times I’ve had a certain beer, this pour style reveals a new taste I missed the times before. 

Do this experiment but do it with intention. Pick out hints you may have missed, notice the differences and succumb to the seduction of this holy nectar. 

  

Beer lives within the community of those who drink it and only there can enjoyment flourish. Share this new trick with family and friends and let the good word of beer be spread so each beer can be enjoyed as it was brewed to be. 

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your tables will be full, friends and family are around and that your beers are poured correctly.

Cheers my People. 

Sample of some notes during the trial of pours!