Milk Stout - Help and advice needed

[cheshirehomebrew]

Hi all, am going to attempt my first stout very soon and have made up a recipe I think I will like, which will be a milk stout as opposed to a bitter style (which I do like as well).

As my recipe includes milk sugars (lactose 1 Kg) in it I was wondering when I add this, as there seems to be some debate over when.

My method is BIAB on a 60 minute mash followed by 60 minutes for the hop additions and its a 5 gallon batch

I eagerly await the combined wisdom here, thanks in advance.

 

[Leon103]

You can add it when ever really. Only used it once and added w8th 10 mins left of the boil.

I drained some of the wort, mixed in the sugars and poured back in

 

[Zephyr259]

Lactose tends to be added 10-15 mins before end of the boil. 1kg in a batch sounds like a lot. The jet black heart clone uses 400g and another recipe I've used was 300g.

 

[ACBEV]

1kg in a batch sounds like a lot

I agree, seems a lot to me too. I reckon around 7.5% of lactose is somewhere near right.

 

[ACBEV]

Here is my 1970s rendition of Mackeson Stout... You need to wear bell bottoms and platform shoes for it to taste just right.

22 Liter batch...
2800g Mild Ale Malt (62%)
225g Brown Malt (5%)
350g Chocolate Malt (7.8%)
125g Crystal 100 (2.8%)
450g Flaked Barley (10%)
200g Wheat Malt (4.4%)
350g Lactose (7.8%)

IBUs... Around 20, with three equal additions of fuggles @ 60, 40, 20 minutes

 

[Linalmeemow]

Yeah, 1kg lactose in a 5 gallon batch is at least double what most recipes call for. I reckon that would be close to undrinkable.

 

[MyQul]

I put 5% lactose (170g in a 12L batch) in the Milk stout I made yesterday. Whilst reading up on how much to put in, the brewer who makes Left Hand Milk Stout (a top American milk stout) reckoned anything from 5%-13%

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

Brilliant, thank you all. I am using brewers friend to make up my recipes so was judging it by balance as much as anything, here is my grain bill for a 25 litre batch (at the mo).

Marris Otter - 2kg
Crystal 30 - 750 gms
Rolled Oats - 500 gms
Flaked Maize - 500 gms
Chocolate Malt - 250 gms
Roasted Barley - 250 gms

So now I think lactose would be 500gms 10 mins before flame out
The hop additions are Cascade 10gms @ 60mins, 10gms @ 30mins & 30 gms at flame out.

According to brewers friend IBU sits at 23.7, ABV will be 4.6% (if I hit my marks), colour is 59.7 EBC, I don't know what that is in SRM's though.

I have seen comments about stouts taking up to 6 weeks to ferment out, and a few months to mature, which will take me to Christmas which I why I want brew this week, can anyone confirm this please.

Oh and if you have anything further to add or can comment on as well please do so, thanks.

 

[Leon103]

Never had any brewing take 6 weeks to ferment, even fermenting at 12c. Never read that stouts take 6 weeks. Guess it depends on the yeast used and temperature you ferment have.

Yes They are better having had a decent conditioning time but Xmas is months away

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

It might have been imperial stouts that took longer due to high alcohol levels, but conditioning does take longer with a more complex grain bill anyway, plus I will probably add in coffee, vanilla and liquorice flavours as well further adding to its complexity.

I like to ferment on the cool side around 14 ish degrees, usually around 10 days and its done with my other brews.

 

[jceg316]

I've added lactose at the beginning and 10-15mins prior to the end of the boil and I couldn't tell the difference. I tend to throw it in at the beginning of the boil with the bittering hops as it keeps things a bit simpler for me. Adding at 10 mins is fine as well. I've found my milk stouts don't ferment out as much as anticipated, I use brewtoad and grainfather's recipe calculator to get OG and FG and it usually finishes higher than calculated. I don't know if that's because lactose is programmed to be more fermentable in those calculators than it is or by some coincidence these beers haven't fermented out.

 

[Snakeshack]

Just racked my Christmas coconut rum milk stout off into a pressure barrel to settle before bottling.
Fermentation went off like a rocket but has taken 4 weeks to complete,last year's only took 10 days and the temperatures are about the same!

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

if I get move on and brew this week mine will be done for Christmas too, love to compare notes snakeshack

 

[mathorp]

The reduced lactose looks like a good plan. If in doubt, start low and increase if you want more next time.
The other posts suggest it doesn't matter too much how early you add it, but at least 10 minutes before the end of boil will ensure it is sterilised.

One reason fermentation may appear to be going on for weeks is a bacterial infection. Although yeast does not ferment lactose I think you will find that bacteria are less fussy. One of my brewing disasters was a batch of milk stout that blew the caps off a lot of bottles. The rest of them foamed crazily when opened. The flavour was not too bad but I suspected an infection - either in the original brew or in the bottles. So try the usual anti-bacterial tactics: sanitise everything before fermenting; cool rapidly; pitch plenty of yeast to get a fast fermentation; sanitise everything before bottling.

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

I have had 2 brews that were foam fountains when the bottle were opened, do you think it was an infection then, as I am careful about over carbonating them

 

[mathorp]

As you are careful not to over carbonate then I think an infection is the most likely culprit. A sour off-taste should also be a clue but it may be masked in a strong flavoured beer. No way to tell at which stage the infection got in - either before or during bottling.
(I got so bored with bottling that I went to kegs and eliminated the priming step. Sanitising is still important, but is much more simple).