Sour milk stout

**Kaz** · 02-14-2011, 08:05 PM

I brewed a milk stout using the recipe from 'Brewing Classic Styles' back in Nov. Its been in the bottles since a little before Christmas and started out tasting pretty good but over the last month the most recent bottles I've opened have been quite obviously sour. Does the 1lb of lactose in the milk stout make it more susceptible to infection from bacteria? I'm assuming it picked up a bug somewhere. TIA

**Pappers_** · 02-15-2011, 11:29 AM

I don't imagine the lactose makes it more susceptible to infection. Did you add the lactose to the boil, to sanitize it?

Sorry about your beer, cream stouts are my favorite!

scn001 · 11-28-2011, 10:52 PM

I have had a similar experience with that recipe. Mine has been in bottles for over a year. In addition to the sour off taste, my beer's head retention is poor. I'm sure that there are multiple factors at work..

StophJS · 12-01-2011, 04:52 PM

Just had a milk stout go bad. Most people don't realize it but if you read into it it seems pretty self-evident that milk stouts are more susceptible to infection. Regular brewer's yeast won't eat lactose but there are strains of wild yeast and other bacterial organism that will. Therefore, your final product when brewing a milk stout includes much more potential food for nasties.