5 Tips For Getting The Perfect Beer Head

5 Tips For Creating The Perfect Beer Head

A Picture Perfect Head

Getting a picture perfect head on your beer for a photoshoot is harder than you might imagine. Here are my top 5 tips for creating that perfect head.

Look at the beautiful head on that beer in the background!

Just Add Salt

1. Salt- dropping a little salt into a beer is a surefire way to bring back the beers head. The benefit of adding salt is that it is available pretty much anywhere and is super cheap. The downside of salt is that it is pretty unpredictable in the way it reacts especially if you are just at a restaurant or bar. You never know what type of salt they will have. Iodized salt will act differently than pink Himalayan or sea salt or salt flakes. The actual content of the NaCl in the salt is what makes the chemical reaction.

An example of the way salt looks when dropped into a beer.

Boost The Foam

2. Foam Booster- foam booster is a chemical compound that you can buy and it is super predictable and kind of expensive. You can find the Foam Booster at Set Shop in NYC.

Look at that perfect beer head in the background!

More Than One Way To Use Chopsticks

3. Chopsticks- this is my favorite way to get a beer head. Chopsticks have a really predictable reaction with the beer. You can whip the head up exactly how you want it.

The Beer Artist

4. A really good poor- Ok let's be honest a perfect pour is a work of art and I am a sucker for getting it right the first time in the camera. If you have a beer artist pouring the beers and you can get the shot on the first try this is the best approach.

Take 27?

5. Beer Pump- Ok let’s be honest you are almost never going to get the perfect pour on the first try. A great solution to keeping your glass in the same spot and not moving the glass is to use a beer pump to pump out the flat beer and then pour in new beer.

Hopefully you can take these 5 great tips on getting the perfect beer head and use them in your own photography.

Nick Bumgardner is a beverage photographer based in Nashville, TN.