Well carbonated, but no head

Question

I've tried looking for duplicates to this question, but can't quite find a single question that covers it, so here goes (pls let me know if I've missed one)

Last night I tasted the first bottle of my first ever homebrew! It was just an extract kit (Coopers Real Ale), and I was quite pleased by it. The only thing that surprised me was the complete lack of head when I poured the beer. The beer was carbonated, at least reasonably I thought, and tasted good (I think), so at the moment all I can think of is that the glass was the problem. (Brand new beer glasses, but washed in the dishwasher.... could the rinse aid be the culprit?) I only bottled a week ago (so 6 days conditioning before I opened), but like I say, the carbonation seemed good to me.

Is there something else that might have caused this?

EDIT: Thanks for the advice so far, going to wait a little longer and see if further conditioning sorts me out...
Bottle #2: cleaned a glass by hand, and bottle had an extra 2 days conditioning, and I may have "cheated" and poured a little more vigorously :) Muuuuch better head, not much retention, but certainly no worse than the local mass-produced lagers. Holding thumbs for bottle #3...

Answer 1

Yes rinse aid could be the problem here but before we jump there I think you need to wait a bit longer. After six days there is a slim chance your beer isn't even fully carbonated yet.

What I've found is that it takes a at least a week, but usually two to actually develop a nice tight head. For a while you may have OK carbonation and loose big bubbles that look nothing like a typical head. In this case I say give it another week (or even two, because why not).

Head is a product of proteins in the beer, and if you pitched good healthy yeast you should be okay in the long run. While glassware is important, I don't think its your issue after only 6 days conditioning.

Answer 2

Rinse aid could be the culprit, the main killer of head however, is oils, any oils. My first extract kit did not have noticeable head either, and a lot of my beers now, still don't have head, because I'm focusing on the body.

This that can help help are carapils/carafoam speciality grain, but these should be used to make beer better, not as a focus point.

EDIT: There's a lot of reasons for no head, I just went for the common one.

Answer 3

Head formation and retention is mostly a factor of medium-length proteins in the beer. Extract kits are notoriously low in these medium-length proteins. This is why kit beers (such as the one you brewed) tend to have the head retention of a class of coke. :)

One way to increase the beer's head is to add a lot of dry hops to the fermenter. This helps a little, but it won't get you to the kind of head that a full grain beer has.

There are "heading agents" which can be added to a beer kit to provide more head formation and retention. These are usually based on iron/magnesium salts, gums and alginates. Ask for it at your LHBS. Commercial products such as Stabifoam are generally used for beers with a high rice and corn content (which suffer from the same deficit in medium-length proteins and other foam-related ingredients).