Feedback on partial Milk Stout Recipe?

[thesmashhit]

Hey guys.

Just looking for some educated minds to give me a bit of feedback on this recipe I'm going to brew. Will enter it in a competition locally, so just seeing what everyone says.

Only a 5L batch, have a mini mash/sparging on the stove, but with extract as well.

5l batch.

0.5kg Munich Malt
0.5 60L Caramel Malt
0.5 LME
0.25 Lactose (5min)
0.2 Chocolate Malt
0.1 Midnight Wheat (just for the head retention)
10g EK Goldings (60min)

I don't know if Beersmith is off, but how much of the Lactose will ferment out? It's giving me an set ABV of 6.5%. Any tips or pointers here would be great. Will ferment with a british ale yeast.

Will mini mash all my grain, then add extract about 30min in. Lactose at 5.

Thanks champions,

J.

 

[doon]

Lactose wont ferment out at all. I recently made one if i remember beersmith calculations were out from lactose. Be conservative with lactose addition i was and it still came through quite sweet

 

[Jack of all biers]

Obviously Beer smith can't handle Lactose. Lactose intollerant software :lol:

Looks like a good recipe. Doon is correct, Lactose is non-fermentable.

I know your's is for a 5L batch, but the following recipe (for 23L) for a Mackeson (milk) Stout clone and it is also easier as steeping only is required.

23L batch

2.2Kg pale LME
470gm chocolate malt
125gm black malt
580gm Lactose

boil 30gm Target hops 11.2% (or your favourite hops to 26 IBU)
OG 1042
racking gravity 1020
3% alcohol/Volume

And because I have nothing better to do a 5L batch equates to (rounded off to nearest 5gm);

480gm Pale LME
100gm chocolate malt
30gm black malt
125gm Lactose

You'll have to figure out the amount of hops for 26 IBU's

 

[thesmashhit]

Champions, will keep you updated on how it all goes

 

[Sippa]

Hey just saw this, I did one last year and for what I remember I used 0.5kg of lactose in a 23l batch and it was too sweet, try dropping lactose down if you haven't already brewed it. Wasn't unpleasant you just couldn't drink too many all at once.

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

After recently being introduced to Abbotsford invalid stout I am considering adding lactose to a stout however I have achieved increased sweetness by mashing at higher temperatures, (75 deg. C) as this is supposed to produce more unfermentable sugars, as explained here, http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-5.html

 

[Jack of all biers]

After recently being introduced to Abbotsford invalid stout I am considering adding lactose to a stout however I have achieved increased sweetness by mashing at higher temperatures, (75 deg. C) as this is supposed to produce more unfermentable sugars, as explained here, http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-5.html

You will definately achieve more mouth feel and an increase in sweetness at higher sarrification rests, but 75C is a bit too high. Re-read Palmers chapter there and convert the F to C again. He states (as do others) that 72C (162F) is the maximum in the Alpha amylase range. Most would say that 75C is getting to ideal sparge out temp where the enzymes are denatured and won't convert starches to sugars anymore. If you are producing nice beers at that temp, maybe check the accuracy of your thermometer, but if it's working for you then what the hey!

 

[takai]

Remember as well you can add lactose to the keg or secondary if its not sweet/milky enough. I am currently drinking a 'Starbucks' milk stout that i added 250g of lactose to as it wasnt sweet enough.

 

[manticle]

Very late to the party but worth clearing up a couple of points.
Firstly 0.5 kg or 500g med crystal in a 5L brew is way too much.
Secondly dextrins (which you will encourage with shorter, high mashes) aren't particularly sweet. Dextrins describes more than kind of carbohydrate with varying sweetness factors but none are super high. Sweetness in a finished brew can be dextrins or unfermentables like lactose (again not super sweet by comparison to say glucose) or it can be residual maltose from stalled or slow yeast.

75 is way too high for a mash. Beta action is rapidly destroyed and alpha will be denaturing reasonably quickly, leading to the possibility of unconverted starch. Modern modified malts can take a bit of punishment though and alpha works quickly. Still wouldn't go above 72 and personally not without a beta rest first (my mild recipe is an exception - 70 for 30 mins)

 

[thesmashhit]

Hey guys,

Bottled, carbed and drank. Must have had a bit too much boil off, ended up around 7.2% ABV, but had a really great mouthfeel, full, rounded sweet caramel flavor. Thanks for all the feedback guys.

 

[Jack of all biers]

Will enter it in a competition locally, so just seeing what everyone says.

Did you enter this recipe in the above competition and how did it go? Always good to hear others feedback.