German Brewing

I have a feeling partially clean (aka partially dirty) glassware may be to blame for a head retention issue I asked about in another post.

Typically after use, I will give a glass a really heavy rinse in hot water, shake, and dry upright. No probably not sanitary during cold and flu season, but in general, I am pretty brazen in the face of pathogenic microbes. Occasionally I will scrub with a Scotch Brite/sponge with detergent (Method or something similar), and sometimes (not often), I will stick even my good Spigeleaus in the dishwasher (no heat dry). I know this is verboten in all brewing circles, but it had never really impacted head retention for me, until now.

Not nearly often enough, I make a paste of baking soda and salt, and scrub the inside using a paper towel, then shake dry, then towel dry. I think this is the recommended method, but was curious as to everyone else's methods.

I am REALLY bad when it comes to this. Sometimes a rinse out with hot water, sometimes the dishwasher.

I just wash with a bottle brush and regular dish detergent, but make sure to rinse very well and air dry. I store glasses upside down, and always rinse with cold water before pouring a beer. My water is pretty soft, so that may be why I don't have any issues with dish detergent/tap water.

No DETERGENT! Mechanical cleaning with a bottle brush first. Then a rinse. Then it's sanitized with no-rinse cleaner (similar to star-san in the US). The bottles end up on the bottle tree for a bit then get filled.

Never had problems with this. Dishwasher and other detergents may leave a coating that is detrimental to the foam and eventually, taste. My main concerns are oxygen-free filtering and flushing the bottles correctly via the bleeding valve on my counter-pressure filler. Bottling is quite a tricky affair with lagers...

...wait did I miss something? Is it too early in the morning?

It seems like the OP was about glassware (drinking container) and somehow morphed into bottle washing process.

I am on a well with very hard water. I do have a water softener and if I don't keep adding salt every month or so, I get little or no head on my beers. As soon as I see that, I know to add some salt. I wash with detergent and air dry. I never use a dishwasher as they start to fade the logos on my beer glasses.

Thought I would post an update on this.

I took a really close look at my glasses, and it turned out they had barely-visible scratches in them. I think it was from the scotch-brite (yellow and green) sponges I would use for the occasional deep cleaning.

As an aside, I emailed Spigelau about this, and they sent me three replacements. As if they didn't already have a customer for life.