Adding Extra Body To Malt Shovel Stout Kit

[SpaceMonkey]

Tonight I'm planning on putting down a tin of the Malt Shovel Oatmeal stout, but would like to give it a little extra body and head. I thought about adding a bit of either maltodextrin or lactose (I have a bit of both lying around). Which will likely give the best result and how much would be advisabler for a 11 litre batch? (I was thinking 100-125g?)

 

[Keith the Beer Guy]

Tonight I'm planning on putting down a tin of the Malt Shovel Oatmeal stout, but would like to give it a little extra body and head. I thought about adding a bit of either maltodextrin or lactose (I have a bit of both lying around). Which will likely give the best result and how much would be advisabler for a 11 litre batch? (I was thinking 100-125g?)

Maltodextrin will give your beer more body, and the amount your suggesting is in the right ball park. It will provide a noticeable inrecase in the body. You could use more, say double the amount you mentioned, but only do that if you like a very chunky beer. The kit has reasonable body to start with.

Adding the Lactose would increase the body, its not easily chewed up by the yeast, but the lactose has a distinctive flavour. It add sweetness to a beer. I would use it to make a milk stout somewhere down the track.

The kit is a good quality kit and makes for a smooth rich beer given a month or a bit longer in the bottle. You will enjoy it.

Cheers,

Keith

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Thanks Keith, guess the malto will be the go although I quite like the idea of a slightly sweeter stout.... how do you think a 50/50 matodextrin/lactose addition would go?

 

[Keith the Beer Guy]

Hi again SpaceMonkey,

My personal recommendation for a kit based milk stout would go along these lines: Add between 250g and 500g of lactose to a good stout kit. This is in addition to a good fermentable, e.g.; 1 Kg of dark LME. Better still if you could lay your hands on 1 Kg of Muntons Dark malt powder (the Muntons DME has a lovely malty sweetness - hmmmmmm, tasty) and add the 500g of lactose - you will have a beautiful sweet stout regardless of the brand of the stout kit.

These numbers are for a 23 L batch. Halve them if you are using a Malt Shovel Fermenter.

Thanks Keith, guess the malto will be the go although I quite like the idea of a slightly sweeter stout.... how do you think a 50/50 matodextrin/lactose addition would go?

Going the 50/50 isn't what I would do. This is because lactose is an unfermentable sugar; it gets left behind after the fermentation is complete. This not only provides the sweet taste but also gives the beer more body. So lactose does both jobs, adds sweetness and adds body.

If you want body without changing the taste the maltodextrin is the one to use.

Bear in mind that it's the experimentalist in me giving this advice. Changing only one parameter at a time makes interpretation of the results far easier. If you add both the maltodextrin and lactose you will get a very drinkable beer (very, very drinkable), you just wont have as good a feel for the effect of adding only the maltodextrin or only the lactose.

But please, SpaceMonkey, do it the way you want to you, because you will be the one who has the pleasure of drinking the beer.

All the best,

Keith

 

[Samwise Gamgee]

Hi SpaceMonkey,

I definately think you are on the right track for improving the MS Oatmeal Stout kit.

My 2nd ever brew was a 2xCan MS Oatmeal Stout (nothing else added) to 20L. Prob best to make 1 can only up to 9L.

I got 3.8% ABV and it tasted shite.

good luck and let me know how it turns out

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Thanks all, after cafeful consideration I decided on 100g malto/50g lactose mix (I know I rerally should experiment one step at a time but I'm never the most methodical chef or brewer ) Initial gravity was 1050, hopefully it'll finish around the 1020 mark.