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Having issues with head retention, but only at our weekend spot so I've concluded it isn't the beer. Therefore it must be the glassware. Doing some reading, I must have soft water out there and therefore the usual dawn dish soap is just not rinsing away properly. This make sense?

If so, any good cleaners that 'will' rinse away completely even with soft water? I'd prefer a liquid based cleaner (rather not mix up a batch of cleaner just to clean glassware if I can help it).

Thanks!

Is your weeeknd spot at higher elevation?

It's actually at lower elevation (Calgary is ~ 1080m and Golden is ~ 780m)..

not a bad vacation spot! I love skiing kicking horse !!!!

Try white vinegar, diluted.

I learnt about that in my Cicerone Beer Server’s course.

For beer glasses, you are supposed to use a bar glass detergent, which is a non-petroleum based cleaner. Bar glass detergent is available from resteraunt/bar supply stores. Most food and beverage cleaners have a petroleum base which leaves an oil film behind, and that's not good. Then rinse in plain water.

Bars do another step with sanitiser after cleaning and rinsing with water ...the glasses are rinsed in sanitiser and left to drain/dry, and then there’s a final rinse with plain water just before serving. The water from that final rinse should sheet over the entire inside surface of the glass, with no dry patches, as dry patches will represent residue on the glass. If you can’t see the sheet of water over the glass easily, as a test, you can sprinkle salt all over the inside of the wet glass with a shaker and if it doesn’t adhere all over the glass isn’t “beer glass clean”.

I suppose that all applies to commercial establishments and I think that detergent is a powder, and you were asking about a liquid. White vinegar sounds interesting. Does it work? JeffSmith on here somewhere says he uses PBW.

Also my sister-in-law who did her Sommelier training said dishwashers cause a lot of problems with foul vegetative odours and she says you have to be very careful with that.

I use PBW, rinse with water and drip dry.

Yup, PBW and wash by hand. Works great for me.

I use a dishwasher or hand wash with plain soap and have 0 issues. I do generally give a rinse before pouring to be sure its well rinsed.

As for soft water - its the worst. Dunno your camp setup, but is it difficult to wash the soap off eg in a shower?

Thanks for the new pic Nick.

Sandy

Interesting.. so I'm curious about the vinegar, is this something I can use just before serviing.. essentially dunk glass, and rinse and serve?

I just don't see the group of us using a special glass cleaner to do the dishes, ha.. so was hoping for a liquid based soap we could just ''replace' our dishsoap with. Or at least for light duty washing like glasses/plates/etc. Looks like I'm wishing/looking for something that doesn't exist.

Tim

The smell of vinegar would be off putting and make tasting difficult.

Sandy

Soap doesn't work in hard water but detergent does. Is Dawn a soap or a detergent?

I can't say I use vinegar these days. It's something my mom used to do. Mentioned it thinking of basic soap residue needing acid to remove it. Vinegar is acid and in every kitchen.

I've seen some liquid dishwashing soups specially designed for soft water in Europe (Denmark, where the water is extremely soft in some areas). Maybe something that you could look into?