Can Lactose be added to the bottling bucket and if so how much?
Your not going to be able to carbonate your beer with it, its normally added to the boil, as a sweetener in a milk stout or something along those lines.
I know it is unfermentable, but my sweet stout came in with a lower fg than I wanted. I will still add some dextrose, but is it ok to add lactose in the bottling bucket also
I don’t see why not, toss it into the priming sugar boil, and add as your normally would.
Now the next question is how much
How many points do you want to add and how many gallons of beer are you bottling?
10 points and its 5.5 gallons
You can add lactose at bottling time, no problem. Dissolve in a little water, boil a few minutes, cool, and add it in, just like priming sugar. I have done this probably a half dozen times and it works great.
I would add no more than 1 pound lactose to any 5-gallon batch. In other words, if you already have a half pound in your recipe or whatever, I wouldn’t add more than another half pound. Trust me. Much more than that, and it’s downright gooey/slurpy/syrupy.
thread semi-hijack: what’s the pppg of lactose? also, how’s it taste? artificial, etc. mouthfeel?
i got a pumpkin ale that finished Waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy too low (like 1.008), was thinking of adding lactose. good, bad, ugly idea? never used it and know very little about it. also, anybody know if a # in 5 gal is enough to give someone intestinal trouble if they were lactose intollerant?
Lactose is great stuff. It has only a small fraction of the sweetness of other sugars, but it definitely helps with filling out the dryness and mouthfeel. But yeah, if you’re lactose intolerant, maybe not such a great idea. Alternatively, you can try maltodextrin instead, which is another unfermentable sugar and will get you almost the same results but might not harm the lactose intolerant. I guess I’m not sure. Okay I’ll shut up now.
Also off subject bit how would maltodextrin subbed for a recipe for lacose change it for a stout>
I would expect results to be identical, but I have never done a side-by-side experiment to know for certain. The two sugars should be about the same, pound for pound.
I used to add 1/2 lb maltodextrin for extract stouts. Haven’t used lactose, but they should be close, like Dave said.
lactose worked great. fixed the pumpkin ale just fine and didn’t have a single complaint at the party. then again, you’re giving people free beer so you’d have to be a real a-hole to criticize the host.