Kunk, the "local" extract is from Oz and UK, so maybe freshness is an issue. I've used Munton's and ESB. What brands do you use? Could you provide a sample extract recipe?

As I said before, I just use the 3kg can of extract, no DME. Could that be a factor?

How long does it take for the head to dissipate? Does it pour thick and then completely disappear, or does a ring of foam remain around the edge of the glass? (For some beers, that's actually normal.)

What style of beers were they? Was the extract pre-hopped? (ie. did you have to add hops?) Higher hopping sometimes makes for better head retention.

Also, did you supplement the extract with DME, or with sugar, or not at all? (And if yes, how much?)

What did you use to carbonate the beer, and how carbonated was it?

I don't know much about extract-related issues, but wouldn't taste be a problem as well if freshness was an issue? (Also, if the extract cans were gotten here, I suspect the freshness issue might have more to do with warm storage after-arrival, and the stock turnover of the brewshop, than with the length of time spent in shipment. Or that's the impression I got from a visit to one shop here...)

Another culprit I've seen for this kind of problem is that there's some residual soap either on some of your brewing equipment when you were using it to brew, or more commonly, on the cups in which you're serving the beer.

Kunk, how much does an order + shipping from Williams typically cost?

Gord, I'll get to those questions after my son is asleep!

*What style of beers were they? Was the extract pre-hopped? (ie. did you have to add hops?) Higher hopping sometimes makes for better head retention.

Also, I've added 2oz of Cascade pellets to the APA extract which was prehopped, as was the black ale.

Oats and Kunkemonster hit some of the important points. To add to them: I wonder whether you might not have thinned the beer out excessively using 1kg of sugar for 3.3 kg of extract. It sounds like a lot, at more than 20%. Maybe the thinness also accounts for a thinner head. I don't know, as I have little experience with extract.

If you wanna test the soap theory, get an unused paper cup or plastic cup someplace and try your beer in that. :)

How long as the beer sat in the bottle? How long did you let it carbonate and condition before refigerating it? If you're drinking it too fresh, or haven't properly chilled it (for a while) prior to serving I find the carbonation can be of a slightly different character: bigger bubbles, and less bubble stability. Or so I half-recall from my 100% bottling days...

Oh, but a correction to Oats' last comment: wheat malt actually has very good diastatic power, and can convert itself fully without any barley. (You've tried a few of my 100% wheat beers, actually, Oats, but maybe I didn't mention the fact.) I'll post more about that in another post, but I just figured it'd be good to eliminate that misconception here. However, if you want to use wheat, you can't just steep it like with crystal: you need to mash it. ("Minimash" would be the pertinent approach, Mangy17.)

You could easily minimash some wheat in some of your brewing water prior to adding malt extract, and in fact if you were wanting to make your extract more highly fermentable (ie. drier), you could pull the wheat out after mashing it, and then add the extract, and just let it sit for a while at the lower end of the mash temp range and let the enzymes from the wheat work on the extract, before boiling it. If you wanted to avoid that, you'd bring the post-mash water to a boil before adding your extract. I *think* that'd work, since wheat has relatively high diastatic power. (And, supposedly, so do oats!)

Hey guys, the answer to my problem has been found. Extended refrigeration did the trick. I need to follow the 2-2-2 process more faithfully. Thanks again for all your input!