Underattenuated Milk Stout

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themack22

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Petered out at 1.030

Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.75 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 6.25 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 5.00 gal
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage


1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 1 8.5 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.4 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.4 %
12.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.4 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 5 4.3 %
7 lbs Munich Liquid Malt (8.0 SRM) Extract 6 59.6 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 19.8 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 9.8 IBUs
1 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) [Boil for 15 min](0.0 SRM) Sugar 9 8.5 %
8.00 oz Coffee, Cold Brew (Secondary 48.0 hours) Flavor 10 -

Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.3 %
Bitterness: 29.6 IBUs
Est Color: 40.9 SRM
Click to expand...

My OG was actually 1.068. The person I brewed with has more experience and talked me out of adding water to the wort to bring it down to 1.061.

Anyway, it's been on the yeast for two weeks and from last week to this week it didn't budge at all.

Should I pitch a half pack of Safale-05? This was suggested to me by a friend.
 
ETA: The first night it was in my garage and I left the garage door open until 1am. I finished brewing at 3pm when the temp was 70. When I went out to the garage after feeding my infant son, I realized my mistake. It was about 50 degrees out there. I closed the garage door and when I awoke in the morning it was in the mid 60s.

This may have been my fatal error. I then pulled it inside where it's 71 all day every day.
 
Accounting for about 7 pts worth of unfermentable lactose, right now you're at something like 62% apparent attenuation, which MIGHT be a little low depending on your yeast type originally used. What was it?

(Plus you got a healthy dose of crystal and a lot of extract, which can attenuate poorly)

Are you really expecting a final gravity of 1.013? That would be something like 91% apparent attenuation (again, accounting for about 7pts of unfermentable lactose)
 
Scottish ale yeast

why wouldn't I expect to hit 1013? not sure I understand the question
 
What he said! Pull the points you got from your lactose additions out, and recalc. Not knowing what yeast you used.....but as an example 62% wouldn't be bad for....say wlp005.
 
I was thrown off the first time I used Maltodextrine. Remember, the whole point of Maltodextrine or Lactose is to leave unfermented (unfermentable) sugars in your beer. In other words, leaving you with a higher FG. If you let us know what yeast you used (was it Safale 05 originally?) we can do the math to be sure but I think you're fine. Just check the gravity again in a few days to be sure it's stopped.
 
That's maybe a little less attenuation than I might expect for that yeast, but then again, extract sometimes does not ferment out as much as you'd want it to.

I see you now have it in a bit warmer conditions, did you attempt to "rouse" the yeast at all? Like a gentle swirling of the carboy? I'd try that and let it go another week and see if anything changes.
 
I repitched monday and it hasn't budged. At all.

It tastes really green/worse now

I should give up on homebrewing. I've probably done 20 beers and they're always under attenuated by at least a point. Why can't I get my years to perform?
 
themack22 said:
I repitched monday and it hasn't budged. At all.

It tastes really green/worse now

I should give up on homebrewing. I've probably done 20 beers and they're always under attenuated by at least a point. Why can't I get my years to perform?
Click to expand...

Don't be so hard on yourself & and the under attenuation issues could be due to extract, maybe it's time to go AG?

A milk stout is supposed to be sweet that is the point in the style that's why it is also called a sweet stout. IMHO 1.013 is way too dry for a milk stout.

I plan to bottle a milk stout this weekend that is sitting at 1.028 now, I'm pretty sure it is done & it tastes great!
 
My milk stout typically finishes at 1.020-1.022, so you're probably in the ballpark with that.
 
themack22 said:
I repitched monday and it hasn't budged. At all.

It tastes really green/worse now

I should give up on homebrewing. I've probably done 20 beers and they're always under attenuated by at least a point. Why can't I get my years to perform?
Click to expand...

Being under-attenuated by a point is not a big deal. Nothing at all to worry about. In this case you should expect to have a higher FG because of the unfermentable sugars in the lactose. I'd say bottle this and see how it tastes carbonated. Beer almost always tastes "bad" pre-carbonation. That's nothing to worry about. Eventually you'll be able to taste the pre-carbonated beer and be able to have an idea of what the finished product will be.

If you're still concerned about the attenuation I can only suggest 2 things. Make a yeast starter, if you didn't the first time, and add some yeast nutrients near the end of the boil next time. These may help get you higher attenuation in future batches though, again, the lactose is adding unfermentable sugars so your FG will be higher than otherwise expected.
 
Did you repitch same yeast? I any case, yeah you just added a bunch more "green" tasting yeast. So let it go at least 1 more week (maybe 2) to see if anything starts up again and to let that new yeast settle out. IME, darker brews like stouts are not quick to brew up.
 

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