Adding lactose before bottling..

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Benny Blanco

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I'm going to bottle tonight and I was planning on adding lactose to my bottling bucket to give my chocolate oatmeal stout a little sweetness.

Does anyone have any experience using lactose? How much should I use so that it gives it just a subtle hint of sweetness? I read that half a pound to a full pound per 5 gallons was a good amount.
 
easy, peezy. Add less at first then sample by ladeling to a glass. It's easy to add more, but impossible to remove:) Do this BEFORE adding your priming sugar, so you know what the final taste will be
 
I made a milk stout once which called for 8oz of lactose. I found it too sweet, also had SWMBO try it without telling her about the lactose and she also picked up on the sweetness. I ended up tossing it but that's very subjective. The beer technically was good I just found it too sweet. I was for a 5 gallon batch.
 
Jebus, I didn't plan on actually trying it to get my level of sweetness down. When I bottle I just want to get it over with as quickly as possible. I was thinking about boiling a pound in a couple cups of water and then adding 1/3 to the whole thing and for the last 12 bottles or so i'll add some more.
 
Well, I added about 5 oz of lactose to the whole batch and another 2 oz for the last 15 bottles. Fingers crossed...
 
Added a pound to my fruit beer. It took some of the tartness out nicely.
 
I usually add 4 ounces of lactose in the boil. Have found that this is a happy medium for just about most of my likable brew styles, mostly American Ambers.
 
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