Freaky weird-arse beers #1,000,000,000,001: gentian milk porter palooz

[TimT]

Using whey is not exactly an original idea, though it's hard to find information about it on the net - a stray blog post here or article there mentioning the possibility and a vague reference to the long history of milk stouts somewhere else originally put the idea into my head. That, and the fact that when you make cheese you get shedloads of whey each freaking time and you've got to do something with it so why not give it to some yeast and let the two fight it out amongst themselves?

If I was going to put it in the ANHC competition I guess I'd tweak it more. Whey's the feature ingredient so maybe just go for a conventional bittering with hops. Or maybe not worry about bittering? (The point being the sweetness from the lactose and the malty flavours?) I suppose the recipe could be taken in several interesting directions.

 

[TimT]

Took a taste of this today, a day after I added the vanilla, oak, cloves, and cinnamon, partly out of curiosity, partly because I started getting antsy about whether I'd added too many spices at once. Already it has a pleasant vanilla taste, possibly backed up by the cloves and oak. In retrospect I probably should have added spices conservatively, and one at time, as is often recommended, so that I'd be able to have a better idea what each ingredient added to the brew, but I was worried about the possibility of infection with multiple additions. Then again, if I'm going to be doing multiple tastings it might have the same effect

I wasn't sure what to expect with vanilla bean actually - but it seems to have flavoured my brew relatively quickly. I seem to recall other brewers being underwhelmed by the effects of vanilla bean in their brew, but maybe the bean flavour was overwhelmed by hops?

Anyway. I'll let it go for a bit longer before bottling and carbonating, but it seems to be well on its way to being a tasty brew. Huzzah!

 

[OneEye]

I think it depends on the quality of the vanilla bean. I've used some from Coles and some I picked up at a farmers market. Both went into different porters but the beans from the farmers market gave a much stronger vanilla taste. Not too sure if it was the freshness or actual quality of the beans. Both prepared the same way too, sliced down the middle with the contents scraped out and dumped into the fermenter (after fermentation had stopped). Sounds like this is going to be quite an interesting brew!

 

[TimT]

Okay, I've flipped the lid on one of these and tasted. Though there was a schppp the carbonation doesn't seem to have got that far yet; no significant bubbling or head. But it tastes really nice; definitely to the sweet side (the whey and the crystal malt and the vanilla bean are really working together to give it a beautiful desserty taste). The bitter/dry kick from the gentian and the tanniny stuff - the cloves and the oak chips and maybe something from the chocolate malt too - is present just enough to balance out the sweetness. To my mind it's really, really drinkable - just about exactly what I was going for. (My wife describes it as 'Christmas pudding taste', I'll take that!)

The main reason I wanted carbonation was because I thought this would work better with a creamy head - otherwise it makes quite a nice still ale. Maybe in future I'll develop this brew in two directions, going for carbonation and creamy head in one (adding a bit of wheat malt perhaps? Would the addition of whey be affecting head retention - positively or negatively?) and turning the other into a still dessert ale.

 

[TimT]

Interesting. I just read today that whey is also a good source of nitrogen, so perhaps it provides some nutrient for yeast as well if added to beers.

 

[seehuusen]

This is a very interesting topic! my mrs makes her own cheeses, I may have to try this out too one day
Though I think I'd not go down the same bittering path, and stick to hops on that front. Thanks for sharing your experiment!

 

[TimT]

Yeah gentian is working for me at the moment and seems to definitely like beers of this style but hops would go well too.

Reading a brewing book the other day and it struck me that gentian beer sounds very like the old 18th/19th century ale, 'Mumm'. Kind of a lost style now but it was flavoured with a number of herbs, including gentian.

 

[seehuusen]

I'm not 100% surprised, though I wasn't aware of that being used for flavouring.
Using hops is a relatively new phenomenon in beer making on the grand scale of things (beers having been brewed for thousand's of years and hops only used for what a couple of hundred years?)

Do you have a recipe that you used for your version? If you don't mind publishing it of course

 

[TimT]

Recipe's on the previous page!

 

[TimT]

I had thought about using hops in another version of this so as not to detract attention from the whey - 'whey' being the feature ingredient, as it were. I thought maybe something that added a spiciness to the brew and not just a straightforward bittering hop - I'm told if you add Fuggles at about 60 mins you'll get an earthy spiciness as well as bitter. Haven't tried it though. In the future I might experiment with a hoppy version.

There's also this: the gentian - if used judiciously, you don't want to over-add it - really seems to go well with the sweetness, making this a nice dessert beer. (It's the bitter component in Angostura and Bitters). I think it would complement other sweet flavours too - liquorice, for instance.

 

[Kiwifirst]

I have to say Tim, that I really enjoy your posts. I love the experimental aspect of them and you have already inspired me to get some science experiments on the go in the Brew shed.

All in can say, without sounding like a fanboy, is 'Cheers Mate!'

 

[Kiwifirst]

Of course you can also read that post as a weasely way to get an invite round to try a milk stout

 

[TimT]

Better hurry up.... almost all drunk up

 

[Kiwifirst]

Thats fine, because I know you'll have some other experiment on the go next week

 

[gazzagahan]

B.