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How much Lactose is too much Lactose?

bobo1898

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Brewed an imperial milk stout yesterday and while my equipment profile was already selected, the volumes of water were incorrect. I didn't realize this till the middle of the boil. Didn't boil off enough, essentially, and ended with a lower OG than expected. Completely my fault for not verifying the numbers beforehand. I know. Stoopid.

Anyway, I don't mind the lower OG so much, but the beer will be a little thinner than I'd like. I added 1lb of Lactose to this 5 gallon batch during the boil. My thought is to potentially increase the mouthfeel (while I understand this will sweeten the beer), by adding another 0.5lb to 1lb of Lactose at packaging.

Don't know if this matters, but after primary, the beer will be thrown into a used bourbon barrel for a month or two and then will have cold brewed espresso added to it at packaging. So there will be some other variables that can potentially balance the additional sweetness.

Is there another way to add body besides Lactose? And is 1.5 to 2lbs of Lactose too much in a 5 gallon batch?
 
bumping because i'm curious what people say here. i just did my first lactose addition to a milkshake ipa, 1 lb in 10 gallons. i'm drinking it there and the lactose is definitely there, so i'd anticipate 1.5 lbs in 5 gallons (3x as much) will be pretty hefty.
 
Unfortunately, I have not used lactose in brewing (yet).  Usually, when I want to make an adjustment to mouthfeel, I add maltodextrin.  My additions have been fairly modest, like about an ounce or so in a 10 liter batch (2.8 gallons).  It has much less or no impact on flavor from what I have experienced.
 
I have used 1.5 lbs in a 5.5G batch and it was not too much.  I added it at whirlpool as I forgot to add to the boil. 
 
Thanks for the response guys!

Oginme said:
Usually, when I want to make an adjustment to mouthfeel, I add maltodextrin.  My additions have been fairly modest, like about an ounce or so in a 10 liter batch (2.8 gallons).  It has much less or no impact on flavor from what I have experienced.

This is a great idea. With maltodextrin, I imagine there's some fermentability, right (albeit not much)? So I should probably add this before I get to packaging so it ferments out? With your ratio, we're talking 2 ounces or less at 5 gallons. Haha, I have not used maltodextrin (yet). Would you say the mouthfeel is noticeable? I probably just need to add enough boiling water to dissolve it before adding.

jtoots, I imagine lactose in an IPA comes through much more than something like a porter or stout. At least I've noticed in many commercial IPAs with it, that they're much much sweeter than most NEIPAs.
 
bobo1898 said:
jtoots, I imagine lactose in an IPA comes through much more than something like a porter or stout. At least I've noticed in many commercial IPAs with it, that they're much much sweeter than most NEIPAs.
I bet you're right, good thought.
 
Maltodextrin does end up with a small amount of fermentables.  I have always added it to the last 5 or 10 minutes of the boil to dissolve it completely. 

I really have only two recipes that I have added it to regularly.  One is a Honey Brown, where I want to retain some of mouthfeel after the honey pretty much ferments out completely.  The other was a tropical wheat that I have brewed once and wanted it to be a little more 'juicy' as they would say today.  In the first case, it does fine; in the second, I probably could have added more.  These days, there are better ways to get that 'juicy' impression, so I've gone to those methods.

If you add it to the recipe, make sure that you mark it as 'unfermentable' in the software.
 
Thanks for the responses, All.

I'll probably dissolve it in just enough boiling water and add it in secondary for the sake of the fermentables. Then package down the line after it's been aged in the barrel. I may go 8oz for the 5 gallons.
 
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