btroberg

Recipes 

Hey,

My friend and I made a Chocolate Milk Stout about 10 days ago with a OG of about 1.060. This was a five gallon batch in which we used:

8lbs. 2 row
1lbs. C-60
1lbs. Chocolate (grain)
1lbs. Roast barley
1lbs. Flaked Oats
4oz. Cocoa Nibs
3oz. Chocolate Baking Powder
1 oz. US Fuggles @ 60
1lbs. Lactose @ 15

All the grain measurements are in whole pounds because the brewery we order from made a mistake. We just decided to roll with it.

We noticed active fermentation the next morning, but by the second morning most all visible activity had trailed off. After 7 days we checked the gravity and it was at 1.027. After a total of 10 days, our gravity had dropped another 2 points to 1.025. We are a little stuck and curious what to do. Is the beer done fermenting? How do we fix it if it isn't? Any advice or thoughts would help. Thanks.

Looper

Recipes 

what kind of yeast did you use?

also, where were you expecting the FG to fall? The lactose is unfermentable sugars, and will make your FG higher than if you didn't use it. I'm sure chocolate baking powder also has some sugar in it.

btroberg

Recipes 

We were thinking we'd get to about 1.016 or so. After thinking about it I'm not so sure. I know Lactose is not fermentable so that ought to lead to a higher gravity but I really don't know how much higher. The current gravity seems a bit high. We used a packet of US 04 for the yeast.

HopOnHops

Recipes 

I made 2 batches of a milk stout. One mashed ~150F and the other mashed ~158F.
The one mashed ~150F had a FG around 1.025, and it was great. I suspect that 1# lactose adds ~7-9 points to your true FG.
The one mashed ~158F finished around 1.030 and was too sweet.

Im playing with the idea of just blending in dissolved lactose on bottling or secondary so you get a true idea of the FG

Xpertskir

Recipes 

You're done.

The lactose bumped up your FG and you are sitting at an appropriate level for a milk stout.

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WoodlandBrew

Recipes 

I'm very confident that it is done.

how to predict fermentation completion with three gravity readings:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-calculate-fermentation-time.html

Lactose is likely the cause, it sounds like a fine milk stout. (maybe heavy in the specialty grains). If you want to get the gravity lower what to do about it is here:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/11/top-ten-ways-to-restart-fermentation.html

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beergolf

Recipes 

You are done. A pound of lactose will cause it to finish about where you are at.

btroberg

Recipes 

Well it sounds like we are done. Thanks for the help. This will spend a few days in a secondary and be bottled next week. I'll let you know how it is.